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STRAW DOGS (2011)Movie Reviews
Thriller about a screenwriter and his wife who must fight for their lives when they become victims of her ex-flame and his vicious friends. Cast:James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgård, James WoodsDirector:Rod LurieRelease Date:September 16, 2011DVD Release:December 27, 2011From:Sony PicturesRating:RLength:1 hr 49 min
Straw Dogs (2011) played to mixed reviews. • Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, "...better than Peckinpah's. Marsden, Bosworth and Skarsgard are all persuasive... Woods has played a lot of evil men during his career, this one may be the scariest." • And Amy Biancolli wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle, "...heated but empty-headed... There's nothing innovative about it..." More Reviews Below...
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: MODERATE(cg) "...purports itself to be an indictment of violence... Yet Rod Lurie, as writer and director, depicts this brutality in vivid detail, to the point of almost fetishizing it."(See all of Christy Lemire's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 548 words, 09/15/11
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...a sketchy oddball... What's missing is the sensuality and danger that gave the original its lurid, screw-tightening kick.... I never truly bought the movie's violence..."(See all of Owen Gleiberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 843 words, 09/16/11
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: VERY GOOD(cg) "...an incendiary button-pusher... Peckinpah rubbed our noses in the bloodlust. Lurie invites objectivity. He gets strong, complex performances..."(See all of Peter Travers's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 279 words, 09/16/11
Scott Bowles, USA Today: VERY GOOD(cg) "...for a while, Rod Lurie's 'Straw Dogs' not only matches the original but improves on the story... Alas, the film buckles beneath Hollywood contrivances..."(See all of Scott Bowles's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 475 words, 09/16/11
Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...better than Peckinpah's. Marsden, Bosworth and Skarsgard are all persuasive... Woods has played a lot of evil men during his career, this one may be the scariest."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,069 words, 09/16/11
Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: WEAK(cg) "The filmmaker's ham-fisted attempts to supply some socio-political relevance to such intractable material finally lands him in a deeper, murkier swamp..."(See all of Glenn Kenny's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 702 words, 09/15/11
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (13 Reviews)
A.O. Scott, New York Times: GOOD "The story does not cohere, and the performances are uneven. But as a piece of film criticism -- as a conversation with, and interpretation of, an earlier film -- it is intriguing."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,041 words, 09/16/11
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: EXCELLENT(cg) "Lurie ratchets up the tension with deft intelligence. He's not just making a thriller but a horror film, and we feel his own fear in every scene."(See all of Elizabeth Weitzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 398 words, 09/16/11
Michael Phillips, Los Angeles Times/Chicago Tribune: POOR "Seriously: Why remake this combustible property unless you have something to say about violence other than 'whatever works'?"(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 416 words, 09/16/11
Kyle Smith, New York Post: MODERATE(cg) "...effectively trashy and rousing.... in 'Coward of the County,' Kenny Rogers managed to tell pretty much the same story in four minutes instead of 109."(See all of Kyle Smith's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 571 words, 09/16/11
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...better than Peckinpah's. Marsden, Bosworth and Skarsgard are all persuasive... Woods has played a lot of evil men during his career, this one may be the scariest."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,069 words, 09/16/11
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice/LA Weekly: GOOD "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."(See all of Nick Pinkerton's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 236 words, 09/21/11
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...it's hardly surprising that it fits so well into the world of 2011... efficiently goes beat-for-beat with the 1971 version."(See all of Peter Howell's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 875 words, 09/16/11
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: WEAK(cg) "...almost succeeds as an object lesson in the difference between being a man and being a macho animal. But it fails as a gripping home-invasion thriller."(See all of Carrie Rickey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 444 words, 09/16/11
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: WEAK(cg) "...does push the wrong sorts of buttons. It veers from its social commentary into the trite and bloody, with a finale that is unimaginative and rote."(See all of Roger Moore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 793 words, 09/16/11
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...resembles a capable Sunday painter's Mona Lisa. Most details are in place, but the technique and inspiration are missing."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 387 words, 09/16/11
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: POOR(cg) "...a crude, queasy, ugly remake... Lurie is such an obvious director that he can't even allow Peckinpah's fascist subtext to stand on its own."(See all of Wesley Morris's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 600 words, 09/16/11
Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: POOR(cg) "...heated but empty-headed... There's nothing innovative about it, no imaginative twist or Tarantino flair. It's just the same old story with cute young actors..."(See all of Amy Biancolli's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 305 words, 09/16/11
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...an artful provocation... writer/director Rod Lurie is unabashedly humanist, simultaneously celebrating and mourning the primal savagery we all harbor within us..."(See all of Rene Rodriguez's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 584 words, 09/16/11
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (8 Reviews)
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice/LA Weekly: GOOD "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."(See all of Nick Pinkerton's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 236 words, 09/21/11
Eric Eisenberg, Cinema Blend: MODERATE(cg) "...competently shot, well edited, and features some fine performances, but at the end its overwhelming flaws make the film a hollow experience."(See all of Eric Eisenberg's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 583 words, 09/17/11
Keith Phipps, AV Club: POOR(cg) "The original was repulsive but impossible to shake. This remake is pure applause bait, which makes it barbaric in ways Peckinpah would never have dreamed."(See all of Keith Phipps's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 414 words, 09/15/11
Alison Willmore, Movieline: WEAK(cg) "...includes seemingly significant elements -- the shadows of war, religious belief, ethical convictions -- without actually using them for anything other than decoration..."(See all of Alison Willmore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 864 words, 09/15/11
Jaime N. Christley, Slant: WEAK(cg) "...downright weird, that one-in-a-thousand kind of remake (like Gus Van Sant's 'Psycho') that's consciously engineered to be more like the original than different."(See all of Jaime N. Christley's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 974 words, 09/15/11
A.O. Scott, New York Times: GOOD "The story does not cohere, and the performances are uneven. But as a piece of film criticism -- as a conversation with, and interpretation of, an earlier film -- it is intriguing."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,041 words, 09/16/11
Andrew Barker, Daily Variety: WEAK "...a film with few notions of its own... it becomes merely an abrasive potboiler, still viscerally unpleasant but no longer meaningfully so."(See all of Andrew Barker's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,054 words, 09/13/11
Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: WEAK "...whereas Peckinpah managed not only to raise hackles but to get under the skin, Lurie manages only the former, which reduces the material to the level of sensation-mongering."(See all of Todd McCarthy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,032 words, 09/13/11
Emanuel Levy, Cinema 24/7: MODERATE(cg) "...an unnecessary (and loose) remake... shallow... Superficial in narrative as well as in characterizations... devoid of any meaningful socio-political context..."(See all of Emanuel Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 893 words, 09/13/11
A.O. Scott, New York Times: GOOD "The story does not cohere, and the performances are uneven. But as a piece of film criticism -- as a conversation with, and interpretation of, an earlier film -- it is intriguing."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,041 words, 09/16/11
22.6 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Straw Dogs (2011)'s reviews are separated by an average 22.6 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Straw Dogs (2011) (35 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Straw Dogs (2011)'s reviews cover 52.1% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 21,125 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 604 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Reviews Broke 0.4 Hours After Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Straw Dogs (2011)'s reviews on average broke 0.4 hours after opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Straw Dogs (2011)'s opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Straw Dogs (2011) (35 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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