Straw Dogs (2011) - Haven't I seen you somewhere before? 

There are remakes and there are remakes. Granted, right now in Hollywood, you can't step on a celebrity star without tripping over a remake, but, sometimes they can work. Sometimes. If a film was made a while back that had a decent idea, but, for whatever reason, couldn't be truly realised, then why not give it a modern day makeover?

Then you have the other kind of remakes.

Straw Dogs is a remake of an ultra violent seventies movie about a man and woman who move into a new home in Cornwall, only to run into trouble with the locals. In the remake, the action has been moved to America, but the plot is basically the same.

If you know what to expect then you're waiting for the violence to finally kick off. It does, eventually, but not before well over an hour of `build up.' This build up shows us how the young, nice, happy couple completely ignore all warning signs that they have a town full of redneck psychos all around them until it's too late and the afford-mentioned psychos are throwing bricks through their window and trying to lynch them.

The originally Straw Dogs was only famous (or rather infamous) for its violence. Since then, we've seen far worse gore and brutality on screen and remaking it (quite faithfully to be fair) seems a little pointless. There isn't enough gore to keep the `gore-fiends' happy. It's too slow to be classed as a psychological thriller. And the characters are too stupid to know what's coming until it's too late.

I think, if this was the first incarnation of Straw Dogs, it might be called a `home invasion' film. However, the fact that there are other films out there which have already secured that particular niche genre, makes this one even less original. Funny Games, The Strangers, that British one that I watched and completely forgot its name - all of those have beaten the Straw Dogs remake to the punch,

However, if you're a fan of Kate Bosworth and like the idea of watching her running around in not very many clothes for the whole film, then you might get something out of it.

6/10 May just keep you awake if Freddy Kruger was haunting your nights