Not impressed...at all.  Extremely slow and plodding.  It just seemed to drag on an on, with so little excitement and action until the finale, which did not live up to what it could have/should have been.

Like many (I hope), I clearly remember watching the 1971 original when I was young (on a cable movie channel, most likely).  I always thought Susan George was hot and loved her in Dirty Mary Crazy Larry with Peter Fonda.  Oh, how I digress...probably cause I've got nothing positive to say about this worthless reboot.

OK, with a young Susan George in my mind, I think I can continue now...

So, instead of Dustin Hoffman's mathematician, relocating to rural England with his sexy English wife, we've got James Marsden's screenwriter, in Kate Boswroth's (his actress wife) childhood hometown - Blackwater, Mississippi - a place no one would want to spend any time in unless they had to...and these two definitely don't have to.

So, they drive their convertible '66 Jaguar from Los Angeles to Blackwater, a mere 1,900 miles.  Not sure how long they're planning on staying, but they do have a Penske truck arrive with their belongings.  See, David Sumner (Marsden) is writing his latest script and he thinks it will be a good idea to write there, while Amy (Bosworth) does...uh...hmmm, not sure what she's supposed to do while he constantly wants to write, as there doesn't appear to be anything to do, except drink at the local bar with all local rednecks, or maybe hunt with said rednecks, but it's not hunting season, so she jogs alot.

Amy's father passed away awhile ago and the big farm house is now hers, and the barn was damaged in a recent storm, so I guess they need to be here while it's fixed by her ex boyfriend and his good old buddies.

Hopefully, you know the story from here, but if you don't, I bet you're first guess will be correct.

There are so many obvious problems on display here that as usual, I just have to wonder out loud...why?  Why?  WHY produce a $12.5 Million feature film, with semi big talent on display, and not take care of the premise/setup/and other things that are so easy to take care of?  Plot holes continue to meander in and out of the plodding almost 2 hour runtime, while foolish, rather ludicrous side stories spring up and literally "smash" into each other heading into the finale.

The one bright spot here is an over the top James Woods, who actually steals every scene he's in.  He's almost unrecognizable at first, but he really does deliver a first rate performance, but his character is written to be a caricature, it's so over the top loony.

This thing is brutal at times but for some odd reason, it doesn't deliver on anything it sets out to do.  The underlying theme that was so well done in the original is just completely hamfisted here to the point, where it's almost laughable, but completely unbelievable.

Wait for this to hit Netflix in a couple months and if you're having trouble sleeping, lie down on your couch and pop 'er in...you'll be fast asleep in no time...guaranteed!

Oh tell me that they didn't remake this brilliant film.

They sure did...opened last weekend...very weakly opened, that is.

Damn, I was kind of looking forward to this one, too.  In the trailer I saw for it, it looked like it was staying pretty true to the original.

I only saw the original 'Straw Dogs' because somebody on this site told me that Peckinpah would be turning over in his grave if he read a certain script of mine.  I didn't really know that much about him, so I looked him up and came across Straw Dogs and became a fan right away, of the movie and of Sam Peckinpah.

Thanks for the warning, because I was going to go see it next week, too.  (I watch very few movies anymore)

Guess I'll wait for it to hit the $1 movies.