FILM REVIEW OF ''REAL STEEL" (2011)

The exuberant Hugh Jackson robotic slug-fest "Real Steel" (*** OUT OF ****) punches all the right buttons. Synthesize two classic boxing epics like "Rocky" (1976) and "The Champ" (1931), and you’ll have a fair idea what to expect from this feel-good, formulaic, PG-13 rated, fodder about an estranged father and son who rescue a robot from the scrap heap. "Real Steel" takes place in the near future when crowds prefer to watch colossal, cybernetic palookas pummel each other into spare parts. The concept that man can no longer participate in simulated violence via sports is a tantalizing prospect, but "Night at the Museum" director Shawn Levy doesn't preoccupy himself with such lofty ideas. Instead, he focuses primarily on a troubled father and son relationship. Meantime, Levy reminds us that a better human always stands behind every good 20-foot metal behemoth in the ring. Inspired partially by the Marx Toy Company game ‘Rock'em Sock'em Robots’ marketed in 1964, "Coach Carter" scribe John Gatins also drew on "I Am Legend" sci-fi author Richard Matheson’s 1956 short story "Steel." Mind you, this isn’t the first time Matheson’s tale has been adapted. Lee Marvin played the boxing robot’s owner in an episode of Rod Serling's landmark television series "The Twilight Zone." In Matheson’s tale as well as the “Twilight Zone” episode, the robot’s manager had no son, and he masqueraded as the robot after it malfunctioned before the match. Consequently, Levy and his scenarists have made some major changes. Nevertheless, the charisma of the “Real Steel” cast stokes this tearjerker with so much sentiment that you’ll shadow box with our hero and tear up as father and son bond. What makes this reversal of character so dramatic is the change that sweeps over our repellent hero and makes him sympathetic.

Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman of “Swordfish”) is a washed-up pugilist who is his own worst enemy. He owes gambling debts to more people than he can remember. Charlie makes bets that he cannot cover with his robot named ‘Ambush’ because he believes “Ambush” will triumph. Naturally, Charlie has to dodge obnoxious louts, especially Ricky (Kevin Durand of “Legion”), a shady promoter, who lures our hero to a rural country fair. Charlie pits ‘Ambush’ against Ricky’s prize bull Black Thunder. Imagine Charlie’s incredulity when Black Thunder pulverizes ‘Ambush.’ Not only is Charlie out of a bot, but also he owes Ricky $20-thousand that he doesn’t have. If things weren’t appalling enough for him, Charlie must contend with another problem in the person of his 11-year old son Max (Dakota Goyo of “Thor”), who he walked out on when he split from his wife. Max lives to play video games and chug Dr. Pepper. Yes, “Real Steel” features some of the most blatant product placement in a long time. Irresponsible as Charlie is, the former heavyweight is prepared to sign away custody of Max to the latter’s Aunt Debra (Hope Davis of “Arlington Road”) and Uncle Marvin (James Rebhorn of “Independence Day”), but only for a price. Charlie negotiates with Marvin for $100-thousand, with half of the loot up front. The catch is Charlie must take care of Max for three months, while Marvin and Debra enjoy a second honeymoon.

Initially, neither Charlie nor Max has much use for each other. Charlie squanders Marvin’s cash on a second-hand World Robot Boxing league automaton, ‘Noisy Boy,’ who predictably gets the robotics beaten out of him by another bot called ‘Midas.’ Charlie tucks his tail between his legs along with the ‘Noisy Boy’s’ remains, and Max and he slink away. Later, they sneak into a robot junkyard which Charlie plans to plunder for anything worthwhile. During their search, Max literally stumbles upon a Generation 2 robot named Atom that saves his life when the youth stumbles off a ledge. Reluctantly, Charlie helps Max unearth what is nothing more than a sparring robot. Actually, this bot bears an amazing resemblance to “Star Wars” bots on planet Tatooine. Our protagonists cannibalize ‘Noisy Boy’ and convert the scrap-heap android into a contender. Actually, Atom emerges as a “Rocky” type because it can absorb as much punishment as a sadomasochistic maniac. After Atom wins several bouts that nobody thought it would survive, Max challenges the WRB’s undefeated champ Zeus. This sinister black android is the property of a wealthy Russian babe, Farra Lemkova (Olga Fonda of “Little Fockers”), and an arrogant Japanese designer, Tak Mashido (Karl Yune of “Freezerburn”), who abhor having terms dictated to them. Initially, they ignore Max’s challenge, but pressure forces them to cave. During the big fight, Atom is battered so badly that our heroes cannot communicate with him, so they have to fall back on visual communication. Literally, Charlie must show the underdog bot when and where to land his blows for maximum impact.

The chemistry between Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo is so genuine that you believe they are father and son. Not since Mickey Rourke played a similar role in “The Wrestler” has a hero so risen from the depths of degeneracy. Basically, Charlie deserves everything rotten that wrecks his life until he meets Max. Indeed, the last thing our hard-bitten hero learns is that he is a sucker for his long lost son. Of course, anybody who has seen this kind of melodramatic nonsense knows that it is strictly formula from fade-in to fade-out: father finds son, father loses son, father wins son back. Atom brings these two together for a common cause, and they respect each other as equals while they struggle to make their bot the best. Surprisingly, the Generation 2 robot that they rebuild as they rebuild their own relationship never acquires sentience. In one scene, Atom seems to recognize itself as it gazes into a mirror, but Levy does nothing with this subplot. Meantime, he undercuts the romance between Evangeline Lilly and Jackman because "Real Steel" concentrates on Charlie, Max, and Atom. Kevin Durand stands out as the villainous Rick who eventually gets his comeuppance. “Real Steel” will keep you rooting throughout its exhilarating 127 minutes.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE THING" (2011)

First-time Danish helmer Matthijs van Heijningen’s remake of the legendary 1951 creature-feature “The Thing from Another World” qualifies as formulaic but respectable nonsense. The original “Thing” preserved only vestiges of author John W. Campbell’s vintage 1938 short story “Who Goes There?” Instead, producer Howard Hawks, “His Girl Friday” scenarist Charles Lederer, and Hawks’ long-time editor Christian Nyby created the conventional alien-on-the-rampage plot at an isolated, snow-swept, scientific outpost in the Arctic. Not only did “The Thing from Another World” constitute one of Hollywood’s earliest epics to depict extraterrestrials, but it also was the first with a hostile alien devoid of compassion. The original “Thing” alien was a towering homicidal humanoid with the cellular structure of a vegetable who gave the scientists and the U.S.A.F personnel a royal headache before they manage to isolate its weakness and electrocute it.

In 1982, “Halloween” director John Carpenter and writer Bill Lancaster produced a sequel where survivors from the initial tragedy encountered a nearby community of scientists. The shape-shifting alien invader entered their camp as a Yukon husky and mayhem ensued. Instead of contending with a humanoid creature, the guys in “The Thing” confronted an ugly beast with tentacles, huge teeth, and a bad attitude that absorbed its victims and then impersonated them. The monster remained in one body until he shifted to another host. Consequently, nobody trusted anybody. Trapped in a remote outpost in Antarctica, the characters suffered from extreme paranoia. Principally, they suspected that one of their own had been cloned and threatened to not only kill them but also clone them. Van Heijningen and “Final Destination 5” scenarist Eric Heisserer have appropriated the complicated Carpenter and Lancaster approach rather than the straightforward, single alien invasion plot. Nevertheless, Heijningen and Heisserer have altered a thing or two. First, the hero of the new “Thing” (*** out of ****) is a woman. Second, the way our heroes test to determine the presence of the alien differs. Third, no equivalent to Dr. Carrington in the original exists in the group of scientists. If you recall, Dr. Carrington represented the fraction of scientists who did not want to destroy the Thing. Instead, they wanted to reason with it and learn from it. Mind you, the new “Thing” isn’t as creepy as Carpenter’s masterpiece with its abundant atmosphere, memorable Ennio Morricone score, and charismatic cast. Nevertheless, Heijningen and Heisserer deserve recognition for their fidelity to the source material and the sequel. Of course, it doesn’t hurt matters that two of the producers on Carpenter’s “Thing” also produced this remake.

“The Thing” takes place in Antarctica during the winter of 1982. Arrogant Dr. Sander Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen of “Season of the Witch”) persuades a top-notch graduate student, American paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead of “Black Christmas”), into joining his Norwegian geological expedition. She accepts and finds herself freezing her toes off while the guys show her their top-secret discovery. They have found a gigantic alien spacecraft entombed in the ice for possibly a hundred-thousand years. The first scene shows how they plunged a snow-plow into a crevasse and found it. Unlike the original film, these scientists stumble onto the spacecraft deep in the ice, but they do not blow it up accidentally. Like the original, they locate the mysterious body of an alien that ejected from the crashed spaceship only to freeze. Carefully, they remove it from the ice and stash it in their research facility for examination. Eventually, the ice thaws, and the monster escapes. Our heroes realize that they are contending with a deadly alien and wield flame-throwers. They start to worry during an early autopsy when it becomes apparent that the creature can spit out replicas of their colleagues. Things reach a crisis point, and nobody trusts anybody, until the savvy Kate figures out that the alien cannot replicate inanimate objects. If an individual wears jewelry, has metal appliances surgically attached to their bones, or/and silver fillings in their teeth, the Thing cannot replicate these items. Unfortunately, some of the scientists don’t have silver fillings. They have porcelain ones. Ultimately, everything boils down to a suspenseful game of cat and mouse. Happily, Van Heijningen and Heisserer drum up an adequate number of scares to keep you poised on the edge. Moviegoers who don’t do horror movies might find “The Thing” a bit more demanding. In one scene, a gash appears in one character’s face, runs down his chest toward his stomach as both open wide like a mouth and elephant tusk-sized teeth sprout accompanied by a hideous howl.

Creature designer Michael Broom of “The Mist” and “Predators” has conjured up several memorable creatures. At one point, the alien absorbs two men so that it looks like a two-headed transplant walking on its arms and legs like a wolf. During another scene, a forearm detaches from one individual and attaches itself by the forearm to another fellow’s face and starts to graft itself onto the man’s face! When the monster is in its own ghastly form, it can project a slimy-looking tentacle that penetrates flesh and bone like a spear. Once the tentacle has perforated an individual’s back, its tip emerges from the chest and deploys into a four-pronged, grappling hook that retracts its victim into its voracious maw. The worst thing that you can say about the new “Thing” is that nobody delivers any memorable lines of dialogue, and the cast lacks the charisma of the first two movies. Suffice to say, all those Norwegian fellows look and sound identical with little individuality among them. Happily, they don’t turn Mary Elizabeth Winstead into a sexy Ripley from “Alien” clone. Joel Edgerton plays a resilient helicopter pilot who is reminiscent of Kurt Russell’s hero in the sequel. Shrewdly, Heijningen paces the appearance of the alien for maximum impact and predictably ratchets up the action in the final quarter. Like the Carpenter classic, the remake shuns humor. Ultimately, although it is a remake of the 1951 “Thing,” the new “Thing” shares more in common with Carpenter’s “Thing.” Despite the sense of déjà vu that accompanies this polished production, “The Thing” lacks the turbo-driven fright of Carpenter’s sequel, but it scores major points with its impressive CGI creature designs.

FILM REVIEW OF ''ABDUCTION" (2011)

You know a movie is in trouble when its title has no relevance to its subject matter. Webster’s defines abduction as “to carry off (as a person) by force.” The second part of the definition clarifies abduction as “the unlawful carrying away of a woman for marriage or intercourse.” For the record, nobody abducts anybody in the straightforward but derivative John Singleton pursuit procedural thriller “Abduction.” “Twilight” heartthrob Taylor Lautner carries the picture on his shoulders as a sympathetic hero who takes it on the lam when he discovers his parents are not related to him by blood. If you’ve seen the “Abduction” trailers, you know that our handsome high school hero discovers his face at a missing persons website equipped with software which enables users to see what the person would appear now as an adult. Our heroine and the heroine realize their worst fears when the resemblance between the computer generated image and he are virtually identical. Not only does “Abduction” (** out of ****) qualify as a lackluster white-knuckled suspense saga, but also it is far less entertaining than a similar thriller “Hanna” about an adolescent girl on the run. Furthermore, the Taylor Lautner hero is far from being a lethal weapon. He doesn’t kill as many people as Hanna, and he isn’t as comfortable with his transient lifestyle as Hanna. Lautner the actor manages to hold his own around a substantially heavyweight supporting cast that includes Sigourney Weaver, Alfred Molina, Maria Bellow, and Michael Nyqvist. The target audience for this PG-13 rated road trip ranges between ages 10 and 16. Lautner sheds his shirt often enough for his female fans, and he acquits himself adequately in all his close-quarters combat scenes. Nevertheless, “Abduction” will not carry you away.

Nathan Harper (Taylor Lautner of the “Twilight” franchise) feels like something is wrong with his parents. They strike him as being strange, but he has no clue about how strange that they ultimately turn out to be. Otherwise, Nathan is no different than any other high school junior. He is the kind of athlete who never loses a wrestling match. He lives across the street from a drop-dead-gorgeous cutie, Karen (young Elizabeth Taylor look-alike Lily Collins of “The Blind Side”), who he has not dated since the eighth grade. Currently, Karen is involved with a college-age clown, but she eventually gives him the boot. Meanwhile, when Nathan isn’t in school or partying hardy at a neighbor’s house, he attends therapy sessions with his shrink, Geraldine Bennett (Sigourney Weaver of “Alien”), who seems genuinely concerned about his welfare. Nathan has trouble sleeping. He has had a history of violence, but the authorities haven't had to take him into custody. Further, he has a recurring nightmare about seeing a woman in a Parisian motel being killed. Nathan witnesses this cold-bloodied murder as a child beneath a bed. No matter what Nathan does, however, he cannot seem to please his pugnacious father, Kevin (Jason Issacs of the “Harry Potter” franchise) who constantly picks fights with him. Little does poor Nathan know that his mixed martial arts clashes with Kevin will come in handy.

One day his high school teacher, Mr. Miles (Roger Guenveur Smith of “American Gangster”), assigns Nathan to research a project involving missing persons. The catch is that Mr. Miles assigns Karen as Nathan's partner. Initially, they begin their project at Nathan’s house in his bedroom. They stumble onto a website with a juvenile photograph of a kid who is the dead ringer for Nathan. Nathan is troubled when he finds a shirt that corresponds with the one that the kid is wearing in the picture. Karen tries to argue that the shirt is merely similar to the one in the photo, until Nathan points out that the stain on the shoulder is identical. Nathan discusses the subject with his mother, Mara (Mario Bello of NBC-TV’s “Prime Suspect”), and she breaks down and confesses that neither Kevin nor she are his blood relations. No sooner has this cat slipped out of the bag than two plainclothes government agents invade the premises and gundown Kevin and Mara. Karen walks in while all this mayhem is transpiring, and Nathan struggles to protect her from these lethal louts. A dying assailant warns them about a bomb in the oven, and an obvious CGI explosion blows their house to smithereens and hurls our hero and heroine into a swimming pool. Later, Nathan catches a television news story about the explosion, and the newscaster reports that nobody died. Apparently, according to the authorities, nobody was at home during the explosion. Nathan calls 911 from a pay phone. Before he grasps what is happened, he finds himself talking to CIA agent Burton (Alfred Molina of “Spider-Man 3”) who wants to help him. Nathan and Karen do their best to dodge the CIA, but the company catches up with them after Nathan kills an assailant on an Amtrak train. Freshman scenarist Shawn Christensen raises the stakes even higher as a group of foreigners armed with sophisticated gear and exotic sniper rifles arrive as if on safari to locate him.

Sadly, the twists and turns in the Christensen screenplay won’t have you performing impossible contortions like a first-rate thriller would have you do. John Singleton makes this realistic but far-fetched thriller into a tolerable potboiler. Beyond that “Abduction” is not very abducting. There is a fight on an Amtrak that has been compared with the Sean Connery & Robert Shaw brawl on the Orient Express in “From Russia with Love.” There is no comparison. The finale at the Pittsburgh Pirates stadium is nothing special. Indeed, one villain calls it quits too easily while another is simply shot down in the street. “Abduction” is the first film that “Boyz n the Hood” director Singleton has made in six years. Singleton’s last movie “Four Brothers” was misfire remake of the John Wayne classic “The Sons of Katie Elder.” The way that Singleton is going, he may not make another movie is another six years. Taylor Lautner should be happy playing third-string in the “Trinity” franchise.

FILM REVIEW OF THE REMAKE OF "STRAW DOGS" (2011)

Imitation, Mohandas Gandhi said, is the sincerest form of flattery. The ghost of Sam Peckinpah would be flattered by the new tricks that “Deterrence” writer & director Rod Lurie has taught the old “Straw Dogs” for contemporary audiences. Although it isn’t a carbon copy of the volatile 1971 melodrama, the new “Straw Dogs” (*** out of ****) replicates the original in many respects. Mind you, nobody could set aside Peckinpah’s gritty epic which still sparks controversy for its misogynistic sexual politics for feminists. Nevertheless, Lurie’s politically-correct remake polishes off the rough edges and makes everything objectionable in this frightening story palatable. In the process, he sacrifices some of the ambiguity that made Peckinpah’s messy masterpiece a more memorable movie. Naturally, the new “Straw Dogs” lacks the rabid ferocity of the Peckinpah picture. Nevertheless, the original and the remake both wound up with an R-rating for violence, sexuality, nudity, and profane language. Like the original, the remake features a vicious rape sequence, but Lurie depicts the assault with virtually no nudity. Specifically, the heroine’s private parts are not displayed. What may sicken some otherwise stout-hearted spectators more than the man versus man violence is the mysterious strangulation death of a white cat. Yes, the original had a similar scene where our protagonists found their pet cat dangling from their closet light cord. Otherwise, the new “Straw Dogs” boasts a gripping story, interesting characters, and some surprises that ought to keep audiences guessing throughout this unsavory saga. Along the way, Lurie has implemented some alterations. First, he shifted the setting to rural Mississippi and takes advantage of the tradition of southern violence. One of the few problems with the original was the lack of familiarity with the English setting. Hollywood has not made as many movies about sadistic English vigilantes as it has about xenophobic Mississippi racists. Second, the hero is a film scenarist rather than an astrophysicist. Third, the mentally handicapped supporting character is not as unsavory. Fourth, David and Amy have a stronger marriage. At the end of Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs,” the husband abandoned the wife because she had betrayed him during the home invasion.

Hollywood scenarist David Sumner (James Marsden of “X-Men”) and his gorgeous young wife Amy (Kate Bosworth of “Blue Crush”) return to her hometown of Blackwater, Mississippi. Sumner has to pen a screenplay about the landmark twentieth century battle of Stalingrad, one of the turning points of World War II, and he wants to write it in the bucolic backwoods of the south. David and Amy met during a television series that he wrote for her, but the show has been canceled. Unfortunately, the Harvard educated David isn’t prepared for the reception that he encounters. Essentially, David is a fish-out-of-water. Not only does he discover that his debit card is worthless, but he doesn’t share the same relish for fried pickles as a delicacy that Amy’s friends do. One of Amy’s friends, Charlie (Alexander Skarsgård of HBO’s “True Blood”), wants to resume their former relationship as lovers. She was a cheerleader, and Charlie was the star football quarterback under the guidance of old school coach Tom Heddon (James Woods of “Ghosts of Mississippi”) who made his players grovel. When he meets Charlie at the local watering hole, David makes the mistake of hiring Charlie and his redneck hillbilly pals to rebuild a garage on Amy’s property that Hurricane Katrina ravaged.

Charlie and his pals start work too early for David and things deteriorate from that point. One of Charlie’s crew, Bic (Drew Powell of “The Marine”), ambles into Amy’s house without an invitation and helps himself to a beer from the fridge. Amy thinks coming home is a vacation, but David is serious about his work. Amy aggravates matters when she jogs around the property without a bra. She reminds David that she dresses for him and he reminds her that he knows what she looks like without a bra. Meantime, Charlie interprets Amy’s behavior as solicitation, and he invites David—who knows little about firearms—to join them for a hunt. Charlie slips away and rapes Amy while David is occupied in the woods. Later, one of the town citizens, a mentally challenged man, Henry Niles (Dominic Purcell of “Prison Break”), accidentally kills Tom Heddon’s daughter. All chaos breaks loose. David shields Niles from a vengeful Heddon who demands that David relinquish him. Heddon persuades Charlie and his friends to help him storm the farmhouse and take Niles. Suffice to say; what ensues isn’t a picnic for anybody.

Lurie has done a splendid job of fleshing out the heroes and villains in a different locale. He lets the antagonism smolder, and then he orchestrates a savage finale where our hero takes no prisoners. One weapon that our hero wields was not available to the English yahoos who assaulted Dustin Hoffman. James Marsden wields an automatic nail gun with devastating results. Similarly, the English yahoos didn’t smash through the farmhouse with a pick-up truck. Comparatively, the Englishmen were armed with only one shotgun rather than an arsenal of high-powered hunting rifles. Marsden plays a different kind of nerd from the Hoffman hero. Lurie rewrote the Kate Bosworth damsel-in-distress role so that she possesses more maturity than Susan George’s petulant Lolita-like wife. Unlike the Hoffman-George marriage that strained credibility, everything about the Marsden-Bosworth union seems believable. As a couple, their characters seem far more compatible. We are told more about their back story than Peckinpah revealed about the Hoffman-George marriage. Meantime, Alexander Skarsgård and James Woods emerge as stronger villains than Peter Vaughn and Del Henney in the original. While the film relied on Gordon Williams’ novel “The Siege of Trencher’s Farm” for its source material, Lurie derived most of his inspiration from the David Zelag Goodman & Sam Peckinpah script. Lurie lifted several lines straight from the original, though he left out Hoffman’s memorable line: “I will not allow violence against this house!” For the record, although the action occurs in Mississippi, the filmmakers lensed the story in Shreveport, Louisiana. Nevertheless, as remakes rate, “Straw Dogs” qualifies as a breed apart.

A FILM REVIEW OF "STRAW DOGS" (1971)

Controversial filmmaker Sam Peckinpah forsook his traditional Old West setting for his sixth film "Straw Dogs" (***1/2 out of ****) to show how the most harmless milquetoast in the twentieth century could metamorphose into a man of extreme violence. Basically, Peckinpah explores the theme of survival of the fittest. British author Gordon Williams' novel "The Siege at the Trencher's Farm" served as the literary source. According to Peckinpah biographer David Weddle," Peckinpah did not like the Williams title so he changed it to "Straw Dogs." The Peckinpah title came from a quote in Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu's "The Book of 5,0000 Characters." The passage that Peckinpah cited was: "Heaven and Earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs: the sage is ruthless and treated the people as straw dogs. ... Is not the space between Heaven and Earth like a bellows?" According to Marshal Fine and Garner Simmons in their respective Peckinpah biographies "Blood Sam" and "Peckinpah: A Portrait in Montage," actor Walter Kelly gave the director Tzu's quote. More than just the title changed as the filmmakers adapted the Williams novel. Initially, wrote Simmons, "Logan's Run" scenarist David Zelag Goodman penned two early drafts of the script. Goodman told Simmons about some of the differences between the novel and the film. Two of the minor changes concerned the protagonist; George Magruder was an English professor in the novel rather than an astrophysicist like David Sumner. The biggest change, however, was that no rape occurred in the novel. Furthermore, according to Simmons, Williams distanced himself from “Straw Dogs” because he hated Peckinpah's use of sex, not violence. Sex emerges as the stimulus for the conflict since two females in “Straw Dogs” are such nymphs that they are prepared to die for it.

Wimpy American mathematician David Sumner (a bespectacled Dustin Hoffman of "The Graduate") settles on a sabbatical in serene Cornwall, England, far away from the violence and unrest raging in America so he can work on a grant. When the villagers ask him if he has witnessed any of the turmoil in America, David replies that he only glimpsed the violence between the commercials on television. David's cryptic response and his subtle indictment of the media speaks volumes. The rustic British hamlet, where "Straw Dogs" takes place, was the hometown of David’s promiscuous wife Amy (Susan George of "Lola"), and their marriage appears to be deteriorating because his Lolita-type spouse wants him to pay more attention to her than the work with his equations on a blackboard in his study. Simmons quotes Hoffman who wasn't entirely sold on either the casting of Susan George as well as the notion that David would have wed such a selfish, shallow-minded dame. Indeed, the first time that we see Amy, she is traipsing through the village with no bra with an adolescent boy and girl following in her footsteps toting what appears to be huge steel-jawed animal trap. Apparently, Amy bought the trap as a birthday gift for her husband. Amy excites the locals with her no-bra-look. As it turns out, one of these locals is none other than her old boyfriend Charlie Venner (Del Henney of "Brannigan") who Amy hasn't seen in six years. Charlie helps David load the man-trap into their convertible Triumph coupe. Ironically, Charlie will later on have a close encounter with the unwieldy contraption before fade-out. Moreover, Charlie foreshadows the use that the bear-trap is put to when he observes that it was designed to catch poachers.

David hires Charlie to help Norman Scutt (Ken Hutchison of "Ladyhawke") complete the work on the roof of his garage on the basis that he knows Amy. What David has no way of knowing is that Amy and Charlie have a history as a couple. When Charlie makes a pass at Amy in the village, Amy deflects his advances, little knowing that David is watching them from the pub where he went to buy cigarettes. Meantime, these ruffians are more intent on watching Amy parade around bare-chested than perform their chores. At one point, Amy appears bare-chested so that they can see her and then she complains to David about how they practically licked her body. David's response is to acknowledge their good taste in women. Simultaneously, the locals are not sure about how to deal with David. They aren't too excited by David's preppy look, his white tennis shoes, and his glasses. Peckinpah makes a point of showing David's wardrobe from the perspective of one of the villagers. Of course, the local constable, Major John Scott (T.P. McKenna of "Red Scorpion"), and the Reverend Barney Hood (Colin Welland of "Villain"), treat David with kindness, but rough-hewn Tom Hedden (Peter Vaughan of "The Mackintosh Man") and his relatives reserve nothing but contempt for him. Eventually, Tom's evil relatives and their friends take David on a duck hunting trip. Basically, the hunt amounts to a snipe hunt, such as in the classic Robert Mitchum movie "Home from the Hill," and they abandon him in the wilderness. During this subterfuge, Charlie and his mate, ex-convict Norman rape Amy. Earlier, Chris Cawsey (Jim Norton of "Hidden Agenda") stole a pair of Amy's panties and flaunted them like a trophy in front of Norman. Norman observed that he had no use for her panties. Instead, he preferred to have what was in them. First, Charlie rapes Amy in a lovingly tender fashion. Second, Amy looks like she is enjoying the experience. This is the part of "Straw Dogs" that outraged feminists. Later, when Norman gets his hands on Amy, Norman shares none of Charlie's tender sentiments. A conflicted Charlie finds himself holding down Amy so Norman can sodomize Amy while she shrieks in agony. Amy doesn’t forget the humiliation of being raped and suffers through it flashbacks during the church party. Meantime, a simpleton, Henry Niles (David Warner of "The Omen") arouses trouble because he was not jailed for a sex crime. Charlie mentioned to Amy that they take care of their own, and Henry is allowed to roam the streets as long as he stays out of trouble. Nevertheless, Henry is seen playing with the children at different times during the action. Everything comes to a head during the church party when Tom's slutty daughter Janice Hedden (Sally Thomsett of "Baxter!") tries to take advantage of Henry after David wants nothing to do with her. Repeatedly, Tom has warned Henry's brother John Niles (Peter Arne of “The Pink Panther”) to keep an eye on his slow-witted brother. Says Tom, "Your brother; been hangin' around the girls again. You'd better keep a closer watch or we'll be puttin' him away!" This subplot is part of the narrative that Peckinpah and Goodman never provide much clarification about so that we know what Henry did that made him emerge as a threat to Tom.

The simple-minded Henry and Janice retire to a barn for their assignation. Clearly, poor Janice doesn’t realize that she is playing with fire. Henry kills her in a scene straight out of "Of Mice and Men" with a conspicuous lack of remorse. Later, on their way home from the church party, David collides with Henry because the road is shrouded in fog. Amy isn’t happy with David because he brings the injured Henry into their house. A drunken Tom and his mates show up at David's house and demand that he hand over Henry. David refuses and chaos ensues. When Major Scott tries to intervene, Tom kills him by accident and things degenerate into chaos. Amy wants David to hand over Henry to Tom and company, but our hero refuses. At the same time, he tries to maintain his nonviolence, but Tom and company sorely try him until he retaliates. David warns them in no uncertain terms. He says, "I will not allow violence against this house." By the time that the dust settles, Tom Hedden has blasted his own foot off with his shotgun. Charlie winds up killing Norman with Tom's shotgun, and Charlie stumbles into the man-trap as he is giving David a thorough thrashing. Indeed, everybody but David, Amy, and Henry survive this nightmarish fracas. Dustin Hoffman delivers a dynamic performance as a meek, mild-mannered man who achieves manhood during a baptism by fire. Peter Vaughn makes a nefarious villain. Vaughn's scene in the pub when David runs into him for the first time foreshadows Tom Hedden's sadism.

Several scenes stand out individually. First, Peter Vaughan's scene in the pub when he calls for another pint before the pub closes and then raises hell until he gets it sets him up as the chief thug. He doesn’t like David Sumner for the first moment that he sees him. The next interesting scene occurs when David careens in his Triumph between a truck and a bull dozer as the two approach each other. The villagers driving the truck flag David to pass them but then they accelerate so that he has to step on the gas to avoid hitting the bulldozer. Momentary though it is, this scene is exciting. Repeatedly, throughout the action, the villagers test David’s mettle. Peckinpah orchestrates the final quarter-hour for maximum suspense and tension. At this point, Peckinpah has established who the thugs are and their agenda. David has emerged as an individual who goes out of the way to avoid violence. When Tom and his mates launch their home invasion, David finds himself in a corner with his irritating wife goading him on to retaliate. The bloodiest that "Straw Dogs" gets is when a lout blows his foot to smithereens with his own double-barreled shotgun. Peckinpah foreshadows the use of a giant steel mantrap and his use of violence is still grisly but it seems toned-down but realistic compared with his classic western "The Wild Bunch." The ambiguous ending will prompt many interpretations. As David is driving the retarded Niles home, Niles says, "I don't know my way home." David replies, "That's okay, neither do I."

In some ways, "Straw Dogs" is reminiscent of those western movies where vigilantes storm a jail, abduct a prisoner from a lawman powerless to thwart them, and then lynch him. Watching Dustin Hoffman miraculously outsmart these five dastards makes this movie a sight to behold. Unfortunately, despite its lyricism, “Straw Dogs” was not a major Hollywood hit. Nevertheless, it showed that Peckinpah could make more than just westerns.

FILM REVIEW OF "CONTAGION" (2011)

Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Elliot Gould, Sanaa Lathan, and Jennifer Ehle all contend with a mysterious global virus in "Traffic" director Steven Soderbergh's nimble global disease thriller "Contagion" (*** out of ****) that Gwyneth Paltrow precipitates. Mind you, "Contagion" is nothing like director Wolfgang Petersen's germ warfare thriller "Outbreak"(1995) with Dustin Hoffman. Soderbergh and "Bourne Ultimatum" scribe Scott Z. Brown maintain an impersonal rather than a glamorous tone as this international medical procedural maps the spread of a pandemic which can kill an individual in three days. Researchers christen the virus, MEV-1, and stare in horror as the virus wraps its lethal tentacles around the globe, killing one in every four people and terrifying everybody else. Not long after the viral outbreak, people become leery of mingling in public. The policemen and hospital workers strike. Society and the rules which govern it collapse, and pandemonium engulfs everyone. Indeed, Soderbergh has assembled an impressive celebrity cast, but limits their presence throughout the matter-of-fact 105 minutes so nobody stands out like in his "Ocean's" franchise. The characters belong to one of three groups: first, the field agents who encounter the disease first hand; second, those behind the scenes who struggle to develop a vaccine; and the administrators who must control the hysteria. Unfortunately, despite his admiral efforts to give "Contagion” a documentary flavor like the classic 1965 "Battle of Algiers," Soderbergh sacrifices the usual Hollywood heroics which would make the action appear charismatic. Doctors and researchers disobey their superiors and take chances that they are ordered not to take. Predictably, mankind survives but the pandemic takes the world to the brink. Watching "Contagion" is like watching the anatomy of a disaster on Public Television. You will exit “Contagion” knowing that you touch your face 2-thousand times a day. When you aren’t touching your face, you are touching something else or somebody else who may be infected with germs. Inevitably, as liberal-minded as Soderbergh is, "Contagion" boils down to a cautionary yarn about tampering with Mother Nature. While the Asians play a major role in the virus, the virus come about as the result of an American corporation that destroys the wilderness with no thought about the consequences. You might not want to dine out at an Asian restaurant after you watch this atmospheric thriller.

“Contagion” opens during the second day that the pandemic has spread. Traveling business executive Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow of “Country Strong”) has attended a groundbreaking for a new factory in Hong Kong. Afterward, she celebrates with several colleagues at a casino in Macau. What poor Beth has no way of knowing is that she has become infected with a virus that came about as a result of the construction of a new factory. The company bulldozers drove huge bats out of their nesting area, and the bats relocated to a swine farm where they infect the pigs with their guano. Beth flies back to the U.S. and squeezes in enough time for an extra-marital fling in Chicago before she goes home to her dutiful husband Mitch (Matt Damon of “Hereafter”) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Meanwhile, other people that Beth came into contact with in Hong Kong are dropping like flies. A waiter collapses, and one of Beth’s colleagues dies aboard a commuter train in Japan. Initially, when Beth left the casino bar, she forgot her drink. A Ukrainian woman hands Beth her cell phone that Beth had forgotten. The woman is found dead in her motel room later by motel authorities. Eventually, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, investigate and suspect that Beth is patient zero for the epidemic. Meantime, things worsen for Mitch when his elementary school age son Clark (newcomer Griffin Kane) dies from the virus, too. Incredibly, Mitch learns that he is immune from the disease and he takes his daughter Joy (first-time actress Anna Jacoby-Heron) out of school and refuses to let her boyfriend visit her for fear that he may contaminate her.

In Atlanta, Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne of “The Matrix”) sends Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet of “Titanic”), an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer, to fly to Minneapolis to supervise the investigation. Meantime, the World Health Organization in Geneva dispatches its top epidemiologist Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard of “Inception”) to China to search for the origins of the disease. Not long afterward Mears comes down with the virus via infected motel workers. A brilliant civilian scientist, Professor Ian Sussman (Elliott Gould of “Ocean’s Eleven”), at Stanford becomes the first to create the virus in his laboratory, while one of Cheever’s own CDC staff physicians Dr. Ally Hextall (two-time Tony-winner Jennifer Ehle of “The Adjustment Bureau”), concocts a vaccine by experimenting on herself rather than waiting. Ironically, both Sussman and Hextall achieve their discoveries because they violate CDC policy. They discover that the disease contains genetic elements from bat and swine viruses. At this point, virtually everybody around the world is wearing a mask for safety’s sake. Cheever confides in his wife that she must leave Chicago and come to Washington. Thieves break into Cheever’s home and threaten his wife Aubrey Cheever (Sanaa Latham of “Love and Basketball”) while they ransack the premises vainly for the vaccine. The CDC establishes a lottery to determine who gets the first vaccine shots. Throughout this global crisis, a lone-wolf journalist, Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law of “Cold Mountain”) who believes in criminal conspiracies has been blogging about the disease. He claims that he came down with it and used another prescription drug to cure himself. Homeland Security officials eventually arrest him for spreading rumors.

Although Soderbergh and Burns do an exemplary job of covering all the points on the compass of the global pandemic, they end up giving their one-dimensional characters the short shrift, especially the WHO epidemiologist in China. We never get to know any of the characters beyond the glimpses that we are given. Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, and Matt Damon fare better than Jude Law, Elliot Gould, and Marion Cotillard. Indeed, Soderbergh shows us the frightening logistics that complicate finding a cure for an unknown virus, but “Contagion” never generates any charisma.

"SHARK NIGHT 3-D" (2011)

"Shark Night 3-D" (* out of ****) bites!

Unfortunately, "Snakes on a Plane" director David R. Ellis plays everything straight in "Shark Night 3-D." Meaning, you had better prepare yourself for clichés galore without a smirk in sight. This derivative, PG-13 rated, 91-minute, yarn concerns three stereotypical, mean-spirited rednecks who drool at the chance to feed stuck-up college kids to ravenous sharks of all sizes. Of course, most of the ocean's deadly predators prefer to prowl the briny blue, but these three rednecks own a stunning device that enables them to paralyze these predators, attach mini-cams to them, relocate them to a Louisiana salt-lake, and wait for them to start chomping. Furthermore, they plan to make big bucks by selling their shark snuff videos to die-hard “Shark Week” addicts after the real thing. Think of "Shark Night 3-D" as "Jaws" trying to meet “8MM." Everybody sports serious expressions because everything is serious. Nevertheless, everybody behaves like idiots, too. A one-armed college jock with a spear wades into a shark-infested lake with revenge in his heart. Hammerheads, threshers, cookie cutters and bull sharks assemble to make munch-meat of him. Sadly, not only are these sharks either digitally concocted or animatronic, but they also act like SyFy Channel sharks. These synthetic sharks swim with such speed that our heroes, when the latter have either a boat with an outboard motor or water bike at their disposal, cannot out leave them in their wake!

An academically challenged Tulane University athlete, Malik (Sinqa Walls of “Choose Connor”), makes a B+ on a test and no longer fears flunking out of college. Malik rewards his dutiful tutor, Nick (Dustin Milligan of “Final Destination 3”), along with Nick’s nerdy roommate Gordon (Joel David Moore of “Avatar”) to join his friends for a good time at a remote lakeside estate. The wealthy parents of Sara (Sara Paxton of “Superhero Movie”) own a beautiful cottage secluded on an island which a sprawling salt-water lake surrounds. Naturally, nobody with a cell phone can raise a signal at Lake Crosby. Furthermore, the nearest hospital lies about two hours away. Little do our recreationally minded heroes know the ill-fate which awaits them. Meantime, Malik tries to play Cupid and get Nick and Sara together. As Malik tells Nick, Sara has not been on a date in three years. Later we learn why. Anyway, Nick and Sara grow chummy and Nick winds up steering Sara’s launch. While Nick is playing admiral, he has show-off Malik at the end of a tether skiing around the lake on a board. Malik impresses everything with his incredible gymnastic feats. He loves to perform flips. Suddenly, Malik feels something ram his board, and he takes a tumble. A shark attacks Malik and tears off his right arm at the bicep. Our heroes bandage Malik and rush him to the hospital. Malik’s blood drips into the lake and another shark slams into the launch so that Malik’s soon-to-be wife, Maya (Alyssa Diaz of TV’s “Southland”), topples into the water and gets gobbled up. Later, Malik storms into the lake with a spear and accomplishes nothing, except dying. The two river rednecks, Sara's ex-boyfriend, Dennis (Chris Carmack of “Into the Blue 2: The Reef), and his sidekick, Red (Joshua Leonard of “Hatchet”), offer to help Sara and her friends. Beth is so sickened by the tragic turn of events that she wants to ride with Dennis and Red back to the mainland. Gordon refuses to let Beth travel alone with them. Before it is all over with heroic Nick has to tangle with Sara’s ex-boyfriend and a shark.

Basically, "Shark Night 3-D" amounts to a complicated but predictable revenge thriller with nothing to recommend it either as top-notch entertainment or so bad it’s good. Freshmen scenarists Will Hayes and Jesse Studenberg neither do Ellis nor the audience any favors with their shallow screenplay that borrows extensively from other shark movies. Their dialogue is flat without any flair. The characters emerge as one-dimensional nitwits waiting for their moment to be eaten. Ellis deserves credit for keeping the action moving at a brisk pace. Nevertheless, he fails to generate any sympathy for our clueless heroes. The villains could be cousins of the rednecks in “Deliverance.” All of the ersatz shark attacks have been lensed before with greater realism in better movies. The 3-D delivers in only two scenes. The first involves an exploding boat flinging shrapnel, and the second shows a shark as its gory innards are blasted out of it. Considering the $28-million budget, you’d think they could have made more than one shark appear convincing. A bull shark does look supremely menacing in a scene straight out of the James Bond feature "License to Kill," but the rest look simulated and swim like torpedoes. Two sharks literally defy gravity by leaping out of the lake to chomp. A first girl caught alone in the lake is straight out of the original "Jaws" as well as the attack on a hapless skier is straight out of the "Jaws 2." If you want to watch a good shark thriller, and you cannot find "Jaws," then you might try "Deep Blue Sea" (1999), or the straight-to-video, outlandish "Shark Attack 3: Megalodon" (2002) and "Shark Swarm" (2008). The PG-13 rating rules out any chance of nudity, and the ability of sharks that can race through the water after speedboats eliminates any sense of credibility. Ellis generates a modicum of suspense when swimmers struggle to out-swim the sharks, but not enough to scare the daylights out of you.

"Shark Night 3-D" is munch-ado-about-gnaw-thing!