Straw Dogs - Rotten Tomatoes
disableOverlay=, param.forceOverlay=
Dinner and a movie - 50% off!
Send me deals for Abilene, TX Akron / Canton Albany / Capital Region Albuquerque Allentown / Reading Amarillo Anchorage Ann Arbor Asheville Athens, GA Atlanta Augusta Austin Bakersfield Baltimore Baton Rouge Billings / Bozeman Birmingham Boise Boston Buffalo Cedar Rapids / Iowa City Central Jersey Charleston Charlotte Chattanooga Chicago Cincinnati Cleveland Colorado Springs Columbia Columbia, MO Columbus Columbus GA Corpus Christi Dallas Dayton Daytona Beach Denver Des Moines Detroit El Paso Erie Eugene Evansville Fairfield County Fort Lauderdale Fort Myers / Cape Coral Fort Wayne Fort Worth Fox Cities Fresno Gainesville Grand Rapids Green Bay Greenville Hampton Roads Harrisburg / Lancaster Hartford Honolulu Houston Huntsville Indianapolis Inland Empire Jackson Jacksonville Kalamazoo Kansas City Knoxville Lakeland Lansing Las Vegas Lexington Lincoln Little Rock Long Island Los Angeles Louisville Lubbock Macon Madison Memphis Miami Midland / Odessa Milwaukee Minneapolis / St Paul Mobile / Baldwin County Modesto Montgomery Napa / Sonoma Naples Nashville New Orleans New York City North Jersey Ocala Ogden Oklahoma City Omaha Orange County Orlando Palm Beach Pensacola Philadelphia Phoenix Piedmont Triad Pittsburgh Portland Portland, ME Providence Raleigh / Durham Reno Richmond Rio Grande Valley Roanoke Rochester Rockford Sacramento Salem OR Salt Lake City San Angelo San Antonio San Diego San Francisco San Jose Santa Barbara Santa Clarita Santa Cruz / Monterey Santa Fe Savannah / Hilton Head Seattle Shreveport / Bossier Sioux Falls South Bend Southern Georgia Spokane / Coeur d'Alene Springfield MO Springfield, MA St Louis Stockton Syracuse Tallahassee Tampa Bay Area Toledo Topeka / Lawrence Tucson Tulsa Ventura County Washington DC Westchester County Wichita Wilmington-Newark Worcester Youngstown
See today's deal Close
Rotten Tomatoes
Skip this ad »
'); })();
RT Login
Log In
Follow us: Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter
Newsletter Mobile Apps
Rotten Tomatoes
Box Office
In Theaters
Upcoming
Top Movies
Certified Fresh
Showtimes
Trailers
Photos
Opening this week
Beauty and the Beast (In 3D) 90%
Contraband 46%
Joyful Noise 39%
Movies
Top Rentals
Current Releases
New Releases
Upcoming
Best Of
Certified Fresh
New on DVD
Moneyball 95%
Killer Elite 24%
What's Your Number? 24%
DVD
View All
Who's In Theaters This Weekend?
Mark Wahlberg
Lauren German
Ben Foster
Celebrities
Features
Columns
Guides
What's Hot on Rotten Tomatoes
Critics Consensus
Critics Choice
News
Critics List
Publications List
Latest Reviews
Spotlight
Nell Minow
Critics
"); loginEle.append(""); $("body").append(loginEle); // Load CSS if(document.createStyleSheet) document.createStyleSheet("//images.rottentomatoescdn.com/styles/jqueryui/rt-theme/jquery-ui-1.8.13.custom-dialog.css?v=prod20120112"); else $("head").append(""); // Load JS $.getScript("//images.rottentomatoescdn.com/js/jquery/ui/ui-1.8.7.custom.min.js", function(){ $('#loginBox').dialog({ modal: true, title: "Log In to Rotten Tomatoes", height: 420, width: 760, zIndex: 65531, //autoOpen: false, dialogClass: "rt-theme" }); }); } else{ $("#loginBox").dialog("open"); } });
'); })();
Do you want to see ?Straw Dogs??
Add to Netflix
$12.99 to buy
$3.99 to rent
Straw Dogs (2011)
tomatometer
All Critics
Top Critics
42
Average Rating: 5.2/10
Reviews Counted: 111
Fresh: 47 | Rotten: 64
This remakes streamlines the plot but ultimately makes a fatal mistake: It celebrates violence.
46
Average Rating: 5.3/10
Critic Reviews: 24
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 13
This remakes streamlines the plot but ultimately makes a fatal mistake: It celebrates violence.
audience 36
liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 14,502
My Rating
Edit
Your has been added to your timeline. — undo
Movie Info
David and Amy Sumner (James Marsden and Kate Bosworth), a Hollywood screenwriter and his actress wife, return to her small hometown in the deep South to prepare the family home for sale after her father's death. Once there, tensions build in their marriage and old conflicts re-emerge with the locals, including Amy's ex-boyfriend Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard), leading to a violent confrontation. -- (C) Sony Pictures
R, 1 hr. 49 min.
Mystery & Suspense
Directed By: Rod Lurie
Written By: Rod Lurie
In Theaters: Sep 16, 2011 Wide
On DVD: Dec 20, 2011
Box Office:$10.3M
Sony Pictures/Screen Gems
Straw Dogs Trailer & Photos
More Photos (31)
More Trailers and Videos (10)
Straw Dogs
May 16, 2011
Straw Dogs (Uk)
Oct 21, 2011
Cast
James Marsden
David Sumner
Kate Bosworth
Amy Sumner
Alexander Skarsg?rd
Charlie
James Woods
Tom Heddon
Dominic Purcell
Jeremy Niles
Rhys Coiro
Norman
Billy Lush
Chris
Laz Alonso
John Burke
Willa Holland
Janice Heddon
Walton Goggins
Daniel Niles
Anson Mount
Coach Milkens
Drew Powell
Bic
Kristen Shaw
Abby
Megan Adelle
Melissa
Jessica Cook
Helen
Randall Newsome
Blackie
Tim Smith
Larry
Wanetah Walmsley
Kristen
Richard Folmer
Pastor
Clyde Heun
Referee
Rod Lurie
Logger #1
Kelly Holleman
Beauty Queen
Grayson Capps
Band Member #1
Tommy Macluckie
Band Member #2
Josh Kerin
Band Member #3
John Milham
Band Member #4
Kristin Lee Kelly
Teenager At BBQ
Critic Reviews for Straw Dogs
All Critics (113) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (64) | DVD (2)
A routine, if rather gruesome thriller with attractive leads ducking in and out of danger.
September 23, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Stephen Cole
Globe and Mail
Top Critic
Lurie, like Peckinpah, is fascinated by the idea that the seemingly mild, non-confrontational pacifist may be the villain in all of this.
September 18, 2011 Full Review | Comment
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic
Everything here plays out to the same beats and yet ultimately results in conventional revenge-minded catharsis rather than queasy ambivalence.
September 16, 2011 Full Review | Comment
William Goss
Film.com
Top Critic
While Lurie could have gone lighter on the symbolism, he 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.
September 16, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News
Top Critic
One of those movies that sits in an armchair, smokes a pipe and reflects "seriously" on "the question of violence," but the main reason to see it is for the hilariously nasty uses it devises for a bear trap, nail gun, etc.
September 16, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)
Kyle Smith
New York Post
Top Critic
Lurie's smart enough to know that we're supposed to be disturbed -- and not titillated -- by the savagery the movie depicts.
September 16, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post
Top Critic
It was a different era, a different time in American culture. Sam Peckinpah's 1971 'Straw Dogs' arguably has become a classic. It was a controversial film when it was released because of its depiction of a sexual assault.
December 22, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Linda Cook
KWQC-TV (Iowa)
Rod Lurie's film equals the original and surpasses it in many ways.
December 14, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Phil Villarreal
OK! Magazine
The hunting scenes and the brutal farm siege are solidly gripping, and Lurie doesn't shy away from David embracing his inner savage.
December 8, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Andrew Simpson
Fan The Fire
Lurie makes the same point as Peckinpah, namely that, when survival is threatened, even the most civilised types have a primal capacity for violence. But, 40 years on, the shock factor has gone.
November 15, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)
Geoffrey Macnab
Uncut Magazine [UK]
This is one of those remakes that feels like the product of lazy thinking.
November 9, 2011 Full Review | Comment
David Aldridge
Radio Times
Peckinpah's most problematic film gets an intriguing, if flawed, update from film critic-turned-director Rod Lurie.
November 6, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Alistair Harkness
Scotsman
Ultimately Lurie's film isn't in the same class as Peckinpah's flawed classic, but it's a respectable, respectful and rather good film.
November 6, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Philip French
Observer [UK]
Still not for the fainthearted, the new Straw Dogs again has something to say about the kind of mob rule seen 80 years ago in Frankenstein (1931). And much of it is not at all pleasant.
November 4, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Graham Young Birmingham Mail
Rod Lurie's remake transposes the action from cloudy Cornwall to sticky Mississippi but keeps the meat of the story intact, along with the violence.
November 4, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Jamie Graham
Total Film
While there's no real reason for this retread of Sam Peckinpah's controversial 1971 film, even Hollywood can't destroy such a decent story.
November 3, 2011 Full Review | Comment
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]
Lurie's film has nothing in its head beyond the desire to make money.
November 3, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]
It isn't badly made, but what's the point of rebooting Straw Dogs, if the only object is to repackage it, and make it marginally less offensive?
November 3, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Rod Lurie has adapted with intelligence...
November 3, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Robbie Collin
Daily Telegraph
Its dripping sense of menace still feels socially relevant, not only in terms of how quiet men can only be pushed so far and how much trouble they might bring upon themselves but also by illustrating what women can wear and when.
November 3, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Graham Young
Birmingham Post
The plot boils up nicely, warmed by Alexander Skarsgard's sinisterly compelling thug leader and set bubbling by James Woods's terrific turn as a semi-psychotic town elder.
November 3, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times
Marsden, Bosworth and Skarsg?rd are superb. But what was the point?
November 3, 2011 Full Review | Comment
Jonathan Crocker
Little White Lies
More Critic Reviews
Audience Reviews for Straw Dogs
View All
A mindless carbon-copy of the 1971 original, the 2011 Straw Dogs suffers from clumsy direction, scatter-shot acting and lacks even the slightest bit of insight into the nature of violence (which formed the foundation of Director Sam Peckinpah's original version). If that isn't bad enough, this film makes so much use of heavy-handed melodrama (pretty much every interaction between the characters), outdated cultural stereotypes (the illiterate rednecks v. the witless Hollywood "intellectual") that it throws any bit of enjoyment out the window. But what's worst is that this pile of incoherent rubbish completely fails to establish any bit of thematic build-up for the finale, so when the rednecks do finally come raping women, killing police officers and burning houses down, none of it is even slightly believable... or worth watching, for that matter. To sum it up short, this film is equal in quality to Nicolas Cage's "The Wicker Man" reboot... yes, it is that thoroughly unlikeable. January 1, 2012
Kristijonas Fussman
Super Reviewer
Charlie: That boys got some man in him after all, alright lets end this.?"Everyone Has a Breaking Point."Straw Dogs did a few things for me. It rein-stilled the fact that living in the deep South would fucking suck. I'm not just talking about the crazy rednecks, but everything about their Republican culture sucks. More importantly though, the movie got its point across loud and clear. It doesn't matter how peaceful you are, if your or your loved ones lives aren't threatened, you will become an animal. You will turn into a killing machine.?A screenwriter and his small time actress wife move to the deep South where Amy grew up. There is a big clash of culture between David and the hicks. They make fun of him behind his back because he actually has an education and doesn't follow their core beliefs, which are Guns, Beer, Guns, More Beer, and finally Guns. His wife had a thing with one of the men who are fixing up their roof, back in high school and he isn't quite over that yet. The film builds its tension well throughout, but still it could have done things a little better.Nothing in the movie standouts, but as a whole it is good. The acting is nothing remarkable, but everyone involved plays their characters well enough. Kate Bosworth isn't an amazing actress, but I thought she did a pretty good job as Amy, and her jogging scenes were just great. James Marsden is also not one of my favorites, but he does a terrific job developing his character as a pacifist, which is vital to the ending working at all.?The film is essentially an hour and twenty minutes of buildup to a final twenty-five minutes or so of just brutal violence.?Straw Dogs is a remake of a 1971 film that starred Dustin Hoffman, which I need to check out sometime in the near future. Seeing as I haven't seen the original, I can't compare the two and when I finally do see it, I may end up bringing my rating for this down. As of now though, I thought Straw Dogs was a well done, intelligent thriller. December 25, 2011
Melvin White
Super Reviewer
Straw Dogs Quotes
View All
Amy Sumner: Don't let them in.
– Submitted by Alyssa B (16 days ago)
Charlie: Oh you want your glasses, go ahead put them on, I want you to see what's coming.
– Submitted by Alyssa B (2 months ago)
Tom Heddon: I got them all.
– Submitted by Beatriz O (3 months ago)
David Sumner: I will not allow violence against this house.
– Submitted by Robbie P (3 months ago)
Amy Sumner: We all trust each other here, we don't even lock our doors.
– Submitted by Chris P (4 months ago)
Submit A Quote
Submit a Quote from 'Straw Dogs'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try.
Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
Character
Quote
Tom Heddon Amy Sumner Coach Milkens David Sumner Logger #1 Jeremy Niles John Burke Bic Janice Heddon Daniel Niles Charlie Chris Norman Abby Blackie Larry Pastor Helen Band Member #1 Teenager At BBQ Kristen Melissa Referee Beauty Queen Band Member #2 Band Member #3 Band Member #4
Enter quote here...
Delete
Add another line to this dialog...
Submit Close
Let me know when its ready...
We can send you a notification e-mail when your quote has been reviewed by our editors.
Alert me
or
Use my Facebook e-mail to contact me
Hide
DVD
Top Rentals
96%
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hal...
35%
The Hangover Part II
81%
Kung Fu Panda 2
44%
Cowboys & Aliens
82%
Super 8
More…
New On DVD This Week
95%
Moneyball
24%
Killer Elite
24%
What's Your Number?
55%
Killing Bono
11%
There Be Dragons
More…
'); })();
Latest News for Straw Dogs
September 15, 2011: Critics Consensus: Drive is Certified Fresh
This week at the movies, we've got a lonely stuntman (Drive, starring Ryan Gosling and Carey...
September 15, 2011: Total Recall: James Woods's Best Movies
Anyone who can claim the titles "ace poker player," "antiques dealer," and "MIT dropout" is bound to...
View All
What's Hot On RT
Critics Consensus
Contraband (Sort Of) Delivers
Critics Choice
A decked-out red carpet gallery!
People's Choice
Red carpet pictures for you, the person
Golden Tomato Awards
The best-reviewed movies of 2011!
Top Movie Quizzes
LEGO Mania: 2011 Best Picture Nominees
by natalie - 17,452 taken created 11 months ago
How Much Do You Know About Leonardo DiCaprio?
by natalie - 41,789 taken created 14 months ago
Pixar Movies!
by jdikwlzviv - 25,708 taken created 14 months ago
The Wizards of Harry Potter
by jdikwlzviv - 26,030 taken created 14 months ago
Movie News
View All
Featured on RT
Comments
Awards Tour 2012: Critics Choice Awards Winners 63
Awards Tour 2012: People's Choice Awards Winners 13
Critics Consensus: Contraband (Sort Of) Delivers 20
Total Recall: Let's Put On a Show! 36
Five Favorite Films with Michael Biehn 68
RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Moneyball Slides into (Your) Home 35
Awards Tour 2012: Directors Guild of America Nominations 91
Top Headlines
Robert Downey, Jr. Talks Pinocchio and Iron Man 3 11
Thor 2 Gets a Rewrite 3
Joe Carnahan Describes the Opening of His Scrapped A-Team Sequel 1
Rob Marshall Is Going Into the Woods 1
Oz: The Great and Powerful Will Go From Black and White to Color 1
The Jersey Boys Movie Gets a Screenwriter 1
What Jeff Probst Really Wants to Do Is Direct 2
Fresh Links
Featured
10 Memorable Eating Scenes TIME takes a look back at 10 fascinating and memorable movie scenes with people gorging themselves!
Before They Were Stars Moviefone runs down a list of the big stars of today who got their start on teen-centric TV shows of the 1990s.
20 Failed Franchises HitFix takes a look at 20 films that almost spawned franchises (but ultimately didn't) and explains why.
Movie Character Crushes of 2011 Who did you go gaga for last year? BuzzSugar has a list of the dreamiest movie characters of 2011!
Top 10 Recut Movie Trailers Tecca has a fun list (with videos) of their favorite "recut" movie trailers!
'); })();
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter! Daily Tomatometer updates, interesting movie links, and vulgar jokes!
'); })();
Foreign Titles
Straw Dogs - Wer Gewalt s?t (DE)
Chiens de paille (FR)
'); })(); '); })();
Login with Facebook to share your reviews with friends, create a want-to-see list, and more!
Log In with Facebook
Help | About | Jobs | Newsletter | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Blog | Developers | Mobile
Copyright © Flixster, Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Service | Privacy Policy

