Escape to the Movies: Straw Dogs

[ProjectTrinity]

WAIT, waitwaitwaitwait.

In the original, the sex between the wife and the ex may or MAY NOT have been rape....right....And in the new one, it's DEFINITELY rape...and yet...the new one's version of events is LESS dark?

What?

It's darker because people rather not say an ambiguous rape was ambiguous. They want it black and white so it's easier to swallow, accept, and want vengeance towards. If you just flip the violence to physical violence: A child being beat by an abusive parent will always be less dark than a child who gets a secret pleasure from being hit. Because really, that's tragically jacked up. At least from a physical standpoint.

Not that I have written any books that specialize in similar dark themes. Nope. I just thought of it. >_>

 

[personion]

Wait, wait, wait, let me hear that again?
"Beer swilling, deer hunting, camowearing, church boosting, pick-up driving, confederate flag waving neanderthals."
Real subtle with your thoughts about church there. I know you didn't explicitly say "people that go to church are neanderthals", but I just didn't like being lumped in with neanderthals. Oh well. Although I've never heard of either movies, it seems that it would be better if they kept all the dark in instead of having clear black and white morality like you made it out to be.

 

[DTWolfwood]

forget point break! i was shocked to learn Keanu Reeves got the lead role in the remake of 47 Ronin >.<

 

[BrotherRool]

It's what they're famous for in England, their lynch mobs

Should have come to Wales

Interesting review though

 

[CD-R]

At least by remaking Point Break they have some room to go up. One could argue they have no place else to go. I'm somewhat infamous among my circle of friends for standing up at the end of Point Break and yelling at the screen how stupid it was.

In Maine? No. Maine is the deep south of the far north.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

A re-make fails to deliver. Shocker.

You know, they should get Reeves again to do the re-make of Point Break. Dude hasn't aged at all.

Yup thats cuz hes immortal

Remember that not only has he not aged, he also hasn't changed his facial expression in a thousand years or so.

OT: As much as i think Bob deserves to get "Nostalgic Critic" stamped into his forehead i still can't say i've ever disagreed with his viewpoints. Kind of a love/hate thing.

So i guess i'll just watch the original and skip this new one.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

It's funny how I only recently heard about director Sam Peckinpah when a character in a different story was described by a reviewer as a 'medieval' version of him.

Sadly, a controversial director like him who emphasizes the darker aspects of human nature seems less welcome in today's feel-good movie aesthetic; ironic when video games have become more risque than ever before.

I won't presume to understand the whole of the original movie without having seen it, but it sounds like that could be the theme for a lot of controversial horror/suspense movies- the signs and an ambiguous feeling that an ideology you've stood by for a long time (in this case the protagonist's belief that his woman will stand by him over the local punks and that their 'thug masculinity' is something he is above) might turn out to be less true than you think. Like in Blood Simple, where the mere fact that none of the characters trust each other ends up ruining everyone.

 

[octafish]

You know, I think there's a bigger reason than modern society's total inability to deal with ambiguity that a Straw Dogs remake with modern sensibilities was a grade-A terrible idea.

You see, the real problem here is there are just a whole metric fuck-ton of a lot less people out there that genuinely believe that violence never really solves anything than there were when the original came out. The same events with a more modern set of sensiblities have no choice but to come across as an empowerment fantasy, because that's what modern sensibilities believe in.

...and yet in 1971, the same year as Staw Dogs, Dirty Harry was made, a quasi-fascist, violence and human rights violations solve everything film.

Wait, wait, wait, let me hear that again?
"Beer swilling, deer hunting, camowearing, church boosting, pick-up driving, confederate flag waving neanderthals."
Real subtle with your thoughts about church there. I know you didn't explicitly say "people that go to church are neanderthals", but I just didn't like being lumped in with neanderthals. Oh well. Although I've never heard of either movies, it seems that it would be better if they kept all the dark in instead of having clear black and white morality like you made it out to be.

While Moviebob is definitely anti-church, and anti-religion, I am pretty sure that what he is describing here is the opinion of the film. The characters are given these characteristics by the filmmaker and Bob is just describing the lack of subtlety in the remake. You really need to address your concerns to the filmmaker, not the person reviewing.

 

[Lionsfan]

Dear Hollywood, new rule, effective immediately.

If you are thinking of remaking a movie, any movie at all, not just the classics, you must first ask yourself two questions.

1) Does the original still stand up on its own merits to this day?

2) Are we hoping to actually achieve anything besides profit from doing a remake of this movie?

If the answer to 1) be yes, or 2) no, or both... DO NOT REMAKE THE MOVIE, BECAUSE IT WILL SUCK!

But will it make money? That's the 3rd question (and the most important one) Hollywood thinks about when greenlighting new films


Also I don't understand why Ryan Gosling has been given the rep of a pretty boy non-actor. Virtually all of his films he's been in have received good reviews, I think the guy is actually a pretty good actor

 

[daxterx2005]

So what youre saying is its one of those remakes that is in name only?

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Point Break already has a remake it's called Fast & Furious.

 

[warmonkey]

This seems to be some serious irony. After the crazy-guy shooting that resulted in Congresswoman Giffords almost dying, the media exploded into how important it was that all the right-wingers stop their violent language. Now, about a year before the next election, we have a rash of (very) violent movies mainly about good liberals slaughtering evil conservatives. (with guns no less) Thanks Hollywood. Why can't the bad guys ever just be bad guys? Why do they always need a political motivation now? Jeez, this kind of stuff makes me want to go and watch a Harrison Ford movie.

Don't forget Mr. Bloomberg's assertion that the Times Square bomber was probably mad about the health care bill.

Whoops.

Better add "wrong" to "guilty of but never charged with heading an interstate gun trafficking ring" to the list of things Mr. Bloomberg can be called.



So far as this horrid abortion of a remake goes.. boy. Just what I want to see. Hollywood jizzing over itself about how awesome it is. Oh look, we're liberal and progressive, but that doesn't mean we still won't kick everyone's ass if needed! Rar take that evil people who think and talk differently than us! What a joke. That's just my daddy beating up your daddy.

It's one thing when it's an obvious and self-aware caricature. Harold/Kumar/WCastle, for instance. That's funny. This remake? That's a caricature played seriously. Wtf. That's just someone who thinks the caricature is the actual thing. That's offensive. Compare to someone who learns about black people via rap music videos, and then writes a movie with a black character based on what they've learned via rap music videos -- and is too dumb to realize that they weren't supposed to take that shit seriously. Yeah. That's offensive, regardless of whatever group is being used -- and only paints the writer and anyone else who let it slide as pretty dimwitted and unable to discern reality from fantasy.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

This is kinda pretty much what they did with the new Gulliver's Travels. Watering the original messages up to the point where the only thing left standing is the concept so that the masses can enjoy it without having to think too hard.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

A few things you forgot to include Bob. *Spoilers*

In the original, the wife flirts with the ex after arguments with her husband and a clearly strained relationship. The rape is initially quite violent and forced, the rapist is desperate, but it also comes across as if he thinks it is just/old times should return (yearning for the summer of yesteryear), then she goes for it and starts to enjoy herself, then a friend of the ex stealths in, threatens to kill his own friend via shotgun, sodomizes the oblivious till the last moment poor girl who was enjoying it, which really breaks her. The ex is quite resentful towards his friend, and this sets up a mexican stand-off at the end, where a temporary alliance takes place, but absolutely no happy ending. So there are multiple things she can't admit to the husband, who still acts like a dick, and the larger complex scene is quite significant in guiding the film.

Truly, all of you, watch the original, I was very impressed by it a few weeks back.

 

[Mumorpuger]

The remake of Point Break is gonna be AWESOME!!!!

They already remade Point Break. They used cars instead of surfing and called it The Fast and the Furious. XD

 

[Dukeoftacos]

Just a suggestion for you Bob. When you do spoilers you should place some sort of visual cue on the screen while you are giving away plot points so someone could mute the audio while this was happening, but tune back in for your final thoughts.

Love the show, watch it every week. Keep doing what you're doing, we're watching.

 

[Urh]

Point Break already has a remake it's called Fast & Furious.

Except that with Fast & Furious it's the whole movie that's gay, rather than just the relationship between the two main characters.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

Man this is exactly like the remake of Cast Away.

Wait... Hollywood did what?

 

[Braedan]

So now that we've had two leftist bullshit movies (that suck, like they all seem to) in a row, can we have one that calls liberals shitheads and then murders a bunch who want to instill communism?