This film is apparently a remake of a 1971 film with the same name and I admit that I haven't seen the original but I pray it's better than the 2011 version. The new version stars James Marsden as David who moves with his wife Amy (Kate Bosworth) to her hometown, a small town in Mississippi. David is a Hollywood screenwriter and unfortunately he sticks out in the town where guys are more like Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard) and his friends. Charlie is Amy's ex-boyfriend and leads his gang of good ol' boys hunting, drinking, and oh they also do roof repairs so David hires them to fix their barn (bad idea). Apparently the moral of this awful film is that if you are not a small-town country guy then be sure you don't move to a small town in Mississippi because you're just asking for violence.
This movie is just such a disaster. The writing is terrible and the cinematography is bad. The result is a movie that spends the first half beating the viewer over the head with cliches and one-dimensional characters (look how rich/elitist/out of touch David is!) and then the other half in violence including the last 30 minutes or so when all hell breaks loose and an earlier violent rape scene. It's like an amped-up Lifetime movie in terms of violence with famous people in it. I felt relief and kind of awkward when it was finally over. Take my advice and don't rent this one - D-.
Don't like violence. This movie had excessive violence. Don't like silly small talk as a fill in. This movie had it and was annoying. James Woods was a rip. I see movies of actors I like. Enjoyed the movie for the action and suspense. Solid B maybe a tad higher just for Woods' performance.
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