THE SPECIAL EDITION 9.6.11

Another great column this week. Nice write up on STRAW DOGS.

(I sometimes feel like the last geek who unaologetically loves DePalma's SCARFACE. I think it's brilliantly directed, and Pacinio is crazy OTT. I think the hotel/chainsaw sequence is one of the best of DePalma's career. So with no shame, I will purchase the Blu. But hey, I'll get DRESSED TO KILL, too!)

Nothing about the Rock Band DLC?  Truly the end of an era. 

Out of the park, Jason... out of the goddam park.

While a 3-D TV won't be in the famliy budget for the foreseeable future, I do think that people too often dismiss it conceptually: hell, if not for the amazing 3-D, I'd have slept through all of Avatar, instead of just bits of it. And you're right: the Nightmare Before Christmas theatrical 3-D version was wonderful.

As for Straw Dogs, you hit it pretty well: "trust the art, not the artist" remains a maxim worth remembering, and even if Peckinpah tried to disavow his take on the darker side of sexuality, that doesn't mean it's not there. The problem, of course, is that if you portray a female character with the kind of desires/issues that George demonstrates here, it's too often taken out of context, with the assumption that this portrayal is intended to stand for all women, and to suggest that all women secretly (or otherwise) desire the treatment George gets here. It's a legacy of the power imbalance between the genders, though, and I can understand why women might fear that kind of stereotyping. I'm a little surprised that you're not dismissing the remake out of hand: it would appear that they've streamlined things quite a bit (the traliers suggest that the David Warner character doesn't exist in this version), and it looks pretty dumbed-down (though if they really are going for the twist that David and Amy are suspected of initiating the violence, that could play out as something different, anyway).

And while I may not be as completely dismissive of Scarface, to me it really is the demarcation between Pacino the actor and Pacino the (admittedly amusing) self-parody.

I'll add my recommendation for Hanna: like Attack the Block or Super 8 (flawed though it is), it was clearly made by someone in love wtih the possibilities of film: even the bits that don't quite work never feel rote, or as though they're there simply because there was money in the budget for them, or some studio notes insisted on it.

Oh, and this week's Rock Band DLC:

I haven't played RB or GH in quite some time (haven't even picked up RB3 yet), but I recall "Dream Police" being fun in the GH:Aerosmith game (which I got free with a guitar controller).

Thanks, sir. As always, I'm blown away by your stuff, and I always find something to hunt down based on your recommendations.

As for the Straw Dogs remake - I don't like to dismiss anything completely out of hand. Meanwhile, the remake leaves the Janice character intact (and since she exists only so Warner can accidentally kill her) - so one would assume that the plot remains the same, and the trailer is deliberately obfuscating the development in an attempt to sell it as a Last House on the Left kinda thing.

I'll end up taking a look at it on video - unless it's well reviewed.