Screen Rant » straw dogs

DVD/Blu-ray Breakdown: December 20, 2011

Paul Young — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:08:48 +0000

There are only two weeks worth of new DVD/Blu-ray releases left in 2011, and as the year winds to a close, finding quality movies on the new release shelves is becoming harder to do.

This week offers movie fans just 19 total new releases to choose from, and of those, we could find nine that interested us, such as Warrior and Midnight in Paris, both four-star films. Mixed with them are a handful of mildly entertaining but ultimately forgettable films – Dolphin Tale, A Farewell to Arms and Margin Call – and a couple of films that don’t quite live up to expectations – Colombiana and Straw Dogs.

Fans of the animated show Futurama will be pleased by the thirteen episodes from season six ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: September 25th, 2011

Niall Browne — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:46:57 +0000

The Lion King topped the box office for a second weekend – beating out the likes of Brad Pitt and Taylor Lautner for the privilege. The 3D re-release of the classic Disney ‘toon banked another $22.1 million and upped its gross to over $61.6 million.

Not bad for a film that was first released seventeen years ago.

Brad Pitt used his star power to open Moneyball to $20.6 million. The baseball drama’s launch was the highest opening (non-adjusted) for a baseball themed film, and about average for a Pitt starrer. The well reviewed Moneyball (read our review here) which co-stars Jonah Hill, was written by heavy-hitters Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian. It went through a troubled production, with director Steven Soderbergh being dropped from the film and replaced by ...

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Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: September 18th, 2011

Niall Browne — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:17:13 +0000

‘Hakuna Matata’ for Disney as the studio is crowned box office king over the weekend. The re-release of the seventeen year-old The Lion King grossed $30.1 million, a great figure for a film that has long been available on video and DVD.

Of course the number was helped with the higher 3D ticket price, but this is a major coup for Disney and it shows that people are willing to pay good money for 3D conversions of older movies – something that will please James Cameron and George Lucas, who have Titanic and Star Wars on the way. The Lion King has already grossed an impressive $797 million since it was first released in 1994, and an international rollout should see the animated film cross the billion dollar mark around the ...

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‘Straw Dogs’ Review

Ben Kendrick — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:00:30 +0000

Screen Rant’s Ben Kendrick reviews Straw Dogs

Original ideas are somewhat hard to come by these days – especially in Hollywood. We’ve seen blockbuster franchises built on 80′s nostalgia, board games and countless remakes of recognizable, as well as some not-so-recognizable, existing films. Now we can officially add Straw Dogs to the list of story ideas that Hollywood studio executives hope will enjoy a fruitful double dip.

Reimagining Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 film, Straw Dogs (which starred a young Dustin Hoffman), is Rod Lurie, a name most moviegoers will recognize as the writer/director/producer responsible for The Last Castle and Resurrecting the Champ. In an attempt to put his own stamp on the “lovers under siege” story, Lurie ditched the rural English setting, and subsequent international complexities, of the original for small ...

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‘Straw Dogs’ Trailer: James Marsden Spits On Your Grave

Sandy Schaefer — Sun, 15 May 2011 05:18:20 +0000

What’s a day in the movie blogosphere without news about a Hollywood remake? The cinematic reworking in question today is Straw Dogs, a contemporary take on Sam Peckinpah’s controversial 1971 thriller about a spiraling cycle of senseless violence and revenge involving a married couple (Dustin Hoffman and Susan George) and the locals of a small English village.

Rod Lurie (Nothing But the Truth) wrote and directed the Straw Dogs remake, with James Marsden (Hop) and Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns) now playing the married couple – and a change in setting from England to the southern U.S.

The Straw Dogs trailer suggests that the remake otherwise looks to (by and large) stick to the plot of Peckinpah’s original film – namely, that the wife (who grew up in the Southern town) rekindles ties with ...

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: December 5th 2010

Niall Browne — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 19:32:23 +0000

This week:

Harry Potter waves his magic wand – but he can’t get un-Tangled; Magnolia Films has Good Neighbours; Ben Stiller and James Franco talk about being Young; Ben Foster and Giovanni Ribisi have Contraband and Michael Douglas returns!

Box Office

Disney’s Tangled duked it out with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 for the top spot over the weekend. The boy wizard lost with Tangled taking $21.5 million to Potter‘s $16.7 million. The Potter film has now banked a mighty $244 million, while the animated fairy tale has scored $96.5 million.

Burlesque danced up another $6.1 million – upping its domestic total to $27 million. The film stars Cher and Christina Aguilera.

The latest Denzel Washington and Tony Scott team-up Unstoppable banked another $6 million for a grand total of $68.9 million.

Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal ...

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: July 18, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:30:55 +0000

This week:

Harry Potter waves his wand and poof, grabs the No. 1 spot at the box office; Pierce Brosnan is The Hunter; get ready for Bridget Jones 3; Would-be Thor joins Lois Lane and Cyclops in Straw Dogs; Find out who Clifton Collins Jr is, and Sam Raimi talks Jack Ryan!

BOX OFFICE

Harry Potter cast another spell over the box office this weekend. The boy wizard should conjure up an impressive $160 million since his debut last Wednesday. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince looks to be another impressive money-spinner for Warner Bros., who delayed the film from its original November 2008 release after The Dark Knight hit big last summer. What’s more impressive is the popularity and quality of this franchise. Few film series make it to number six without losing box office or creative standards, but the ...

Click to continue reading Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: July 18, 2009

Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: April 26, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:45:35 +0000

This week:

Beyonce is Obsessed with being number one; Tony Scott and Denzel Washington are Unstoppable; it’s all Greek to Warner Bros. with Odysseus; James Marsden hassles the “Hoff” in Straw Dogs; will DiCaprio Beat the Reaper? Catherine is Keener for Jackson.

Box Office

It looks like all the independent women threw their hands up in the air for Beyonce Knowles starring Obsessed. The female fronted film grossed $28.5 million – which is about $10 million more than the studio predicted.

Zac Efron had to settle for a runner-up spot this week with an $11.5 weekend take for 17 Again. The film has so far banked about $39 million clearly going through the door-marked profit.

Channing Tatum (who’s on the cusp of big things with G.I Joe) and Iron Man’s (but not Iron Man 2) Terrance Howard came a close third this weekend with $11.3 million for Fighting.

Iron Man himself Robert Downey Jr was ...

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