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Straw Dogs
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Metascore
45 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 29 Critics What's this?

User Score
5.6 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 35 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, James Marsden, Kate Bosworth
  • Summary: The new Straw Dogs follows Los Angeles screenwriter David Sumner, who moves with his wife to her hometown in the deep South. Once there, tensions build in their marriage and old conflicts re-emerge with the locals, leading to a violent confrontation. (Sony Pictures)

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 29
  3. Negative: 9 out of 29
  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    Sep 14, 2011
    88
    Rod Lurie has made a first-rate film of psychological warfare, and yes, I thought it was better than Peckinpah's. Marsden, Bosworth and Skarsgard are all persuasive, and although James Woods has played a lot of evil men during his career, this one may be the scariest.
  2. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Nick Pinkerton
    Sep 17, 2011
    60
    There's no matching the sinister village faces in Peckinpah's cast or the psychological acuity of his scene-making, but Lurie shows himself man enough for the material.
  3. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Stephen Cole
    Sep 15, 2011
    38
    The film has one sly, ominous touch Peckinpah would have liked. David is writing a script on the defence of Stalingrad, a battle that swallowed two million lives. Otherwise, the new version is a vigilante action film bereft of subtlety or restraint.

See all 29 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 10
  3. Negative: 1 out of 10
  1. ciaonine
    10
    A disturbing but compelling film with very good performances.James Marsden shows that he can do more than appear in romantic comedies.Kate Bosworth is both cute and sexy and shows she can act too.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. Ryencoke
    5
    Let me first start of by saying that the acting in this film was fantastic. Every actor was spot on with their role and very well directed. Now, I have not seen the original of this movie. I in-fact had no idea it was a remake (which is all they do now-a-days). This was a movie in a long time that I was extremely enthusiastic about seeing. The trailer made this look like a spot on action/thriller revenge flick. Sadly it really wasn't. The first hour into the film they completely establish all of the characters and really show who they are and their interaction with each other. Like I said well acted and well portrayed. But in a realistic aspect they show everything from the trailer in the last 20 minutes of the film. There wasn't really a whole hell of a lot that was accomplished within 3/4ths of the film. It's a huge build up to a rather disappointing film. James Wood plays his always excellent crazy villain, and presumably plays his darkest one yet. He was the one standout character in this movie for me. There was a lot of huge plot holes in this movie regarding many situations and characters which you can't help wonder why this movie was sitting on the shelf for 6 months before a filler in the fall release schedule. From what I had gathered from this film was it was just another remake cash cow because Hollywood really had no more ideas. If you're a movie lover who enjoys a twisted role on films this will really bore you. Overall this is not worth a theater view it's worth a rental at best, you aren't missing anything at all.… Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  3. andischatz
    2
    Very good performances by very good actors, unfortunately failing to save this film. Entirely predictable (the setups are all way too obvious), the film ponders on forever with more or less only one thing to do - set up the final showdown. When that finally arrives, it all goes horribly wrong when it starts celebrating the violence that you had really hoped wasn't part of the hero's character. Yes, people got "what was coming to them," but the violence was too gratuitous and delivered with too much gusto, which made the main character (and the film) lose its moral high ground. Unpleasant and boring.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 10 User Reviews

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