Hollywood might see Straw Dogs history, based on the 1969 novel, "The seat of the backhoe on the farm" by British author Gordon Williams, provocative - it's actually a fairly basic set-up. David Sumner (James Marsden), a Hollywood scriptwriter, and his wife (Kate Bosworth) Amy leaves the big city behind to spend some time in southern Amy hometown - after the death of his father. As David tries to get aclimated to its new environment, it is quick pit against a group of locals protection. Group leader, Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard) is cherished by Amy in high school, and hates to be outside David a stranger and an intellectual. As tensions rise between the men, a series of increasingly violent events leads to an all-out, the bloody siege of the couple's home - forcing David to put his "violence is not the answer" approach and battle brutal for the life of his family.
While the remake's plot closely follows the progress of every moment of origin, none of the scenes offer compelling improvements in the narrative (and therefore actually harm successful remake) - as if the main purpose of the film was to recreate the scenes of a modern classic (and domestic) setting, instead of composing a new take on the story that would make it even more frightening, and timely than the original. Not to mention make a lot of ideas that Straw Dogs borrows from the original film did not translate to success - giving some particularly shocking character representations (David Werner-old "village idiot" is now mentally disabled young man portrayed Dominic Purcell) and heavy-handed thematic elements (David is working on a landmark treaty on the siege of Stalingrad).
While the performances are competent (not great) around the stereotype-heavy presentation of the "bad guys", called "rednecks" of Blackwater, has nothing unique to offer: they are a lot of beer, fearing God loves soccer, blue-collar guys who love to hunt - and of course, do not accept intellectual cities. As events unfold in a series of increasingly violent circumstances, when the film flirts with the complex nature of internal conflicts, which left the ship and almost always freezes again in the complex and banal stereotypes.
