Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Leofwine_draca Very much in the spirit of a modern-day STRAW DOGS, STRAIGHTHEADS is a lean and gritty thriller that cuts straight to the point with the speed of an arrow. It's a short film that smacks you across the face and leaves you reeling with the level of brutality and nihilism on offer. It's a film that came in under the radar, was pretty much panned by the critics, and disappeared again to line DVD rental shelves and appear on late night television. The latter is where I caught it, and I'm glad I did: I enjoyed this pared-down offering that, while being nothing new, is nevertheless engaging, often shocking fare.The central casting is pretty unusual. Gillian Anderson takes the lead role, and fans across the globe automatically associate her with Agent Scully from THE X-FILES. In this film, she's a sexually-charged young British businesswoman who's about as far from the prim and proper Scully you can get. Anderson must deal with plenty of traumatic moment, and she's never less than excellent in the part. She also goes nude for the first time in her career, an aspect of this film which garnered more attention than perhaps it should have. She's backed up by Danny Dyer, an up-and-coming young Londoner who seems to be carving a career for himself in these dark, violent movies; I just saw him in SEVERANCE while at the same time catching the ads for OUTLAW amongst others. Dyer's a love-him-or-hate-him type of actor, and I think he's decent here – especially towards the film's climax.Obviously, violence is the film's main tone and there's a ton of it. The initial rape/assault is as unpleasant as you'd imagine, and it's equalled by some nasty moments at the climax – including one use of a rifle that you wouldn't automatically think of. The script focuses on the unravelling of the central characters and follows their psychosis following the attack, and it's a lot darker than anything Hollywood would dare aim for. This is far from your typical revenge flick – here, Dyer and Anderson are truly hurting, and they show it – a lot. The last act might veer into the kind of predictability that comes from having watched the likes of DELIVERANCE and STRAW DOGS, but it's still well handled – complementing a film I didn't expect much of, but got a lot out of.

BA_Harrison Looking to create some space on my DVD shelf, I decided to watch Straightheads, which has been gathering dust for quite some time largely due to its bewildering title which gives zero indication of what the film is actually about. On seeing that Danny Dyer was in it, I almost put the damn thing straight back (hell, I almost threw it in the bin), but being rather partial to a bit of Gillian Anderson, and noticing that she gets her kit off in this film (must be why I bought it in the first place), I opted to go ahead and watch it. And it's pretty damn good, a brutal rape/revenge tale that isn't afraid to play things a little differently.Anderson is Alice, a successful London businesswoman who sinks her cougar claws into cheeky Cockney alarm installer Adam (Dyer, who is actually bearable for a change), inviting him to a swanky party and then shagging him in the woods. The evening ends badly, however, when a road-rage incident on the way home results in the couple being brutally attacked by three men; Adam receives a right-royal kicking that leaves him blind in one eye, and Alice is left walking funny after a brutal gang rape.A month later, while driving down a country lane, Alice recognises one of her attackers and follows him home. Soon after, Adam accompanies Alice to the man's house where they spot all three of their assailants. The scene is now set for some good old-fashioned retribution, but matters become complicated due to Adam's initial reluctance to resort to violence and unforeseen developments that leave Alice ambivalent about her plans for revenge.These conflicting emotions go to make Straightheads far less 'cut and dried' and consequently more intriguing than many rape/revenge movies, which usually offer only one inevitable outcome; however, those viewers for whom a satisfying revenge is paramount needn't think that they're going to be cheated: all three men do get their just desserts, it's just not always obvious which character is going to serve it up. The violence, when it eventually happens, is not as graphic as many (including myself) would probably like, but what occurs is still cringe-worthy, especially when the barrel of a rifle is used to give one unlucky rapist a taste of his own medicine and the term 'an eye for an eye' is taken literally with the help of a big knife.With justice having been done, the film ends abruptly, leaving the viewer to ponder what they would have done in the same situation.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb, meaning that the film is now deserving of a permanent place on my shelf (although if that terrible deleted cake scene in the DVD extras had made it into the final cut, I might not have been quite as generous).

zulus88 Dan Reed, an award winning documentary director, débuts with a thriller that will only be watched for its self proclaimed shock value and soon forgotten for the lack of this and, quite frankly, any value whatsoever.Alice's (Gillian Anderson) and Adam's (Danny Dyer) meeting is one of a chance. After he installs an alarm system in her upper class apartment, she invites him to a dull house warming party in a countryside in the unlike role of a sex toy. Their accident is one of a chance too. Alice hits a deer and they are both forced to pull over to remove the suffering animal from the road. There, they are attacked by three men they passed by earlier on. Adam is brutally beat up and Alice's raped. After one month recovery, she manages to return to work and Adam, with one eye blind and his face scarred stays locked at her home, struggling to overcome his accident inflicted impotence. When Alice learns of her father's death she drives to the countryside again where she encounters one of the rapists. She persuades Adam to take revenge they supposedly deserve.Reed, with a brief 76 minutes running time, skips any unnecessary expositions but unfortunately in the process, looses most of the motivation for both the characters and the audience. What's left is paper thin. Dyer is his own, low class, laddish caricature and Anderson's middle aged, sexy businesswoman is played on a hysterical autopilot. Even their unlikely affair is played out with no true interest in an inevitable contrast they create. It seems that they both serve a foolish, deus ex machina plot where Reed's main moral concern is whether the revenge is not even more dehumanizing than animalistic behaviour that provokes it. He's bend on making a statement but with no interest in the process, he jumps right to the end far to quickly and makes the whole experience unconvincing and uninteresting.Straightheads, for the most part, plays out like a character film but the little emotional intimacy that the characters actually share, is blown away by the outbursts of violence and sex. They do little more but emphasize the growing brutalization of Adam and Alice-something so painfully obvious and insubstantial that it's difficult to find any justification for the grim tones that film hits. In its attempt on deep, structured emotional insight into the life post trauma, it seems to be too brief and relies too strongly on in-your-face violence to awake any serious afterthought.And even despite its length, Straightheads is a drag. With 20 minutes of deleted footage available on the DVD, it looks like it wasn't really sure of its narration's rhythm. It ultimately emphasizes little of the tension and drama that first rate thriller should provide and instead it dwells on cheap, worn out psychology. The metamorphosis of Adam and Alice is foreseeable and because of that disengaging. As the film, unbearably slowly, drifts towards its conclusion, Dyer's restrained pansy regresses into a violent psycho and the film reaches its feeble ending with no constructive point. It all ends too abruptly with ambiguity that is usually reserved for films of explicit intellectual strength. But Adam's stare on the audience remains empty- a worthless gesture, a last failed stunt committed by a film of a stunning, obscure numbness.Verdict: Straightheads seems like a challenging attempt but comes across as to scared of any serious commitment to its brutal, provocative subject. Instead it will try to shock you with relentless, gruesome images but it's all just a sombre bore. It recalls visceral, nauseating power of Straw Dogs and Irreversible but is nowhere near as engaging, original or graphic.1.5/5

kraljhenri-1 This movie is the worst I've seen in the last 5 years. It is surprising how brilliant actors like two main characters in this movie has accepted to act in such worthless peace of trash. The film is rape/beating and revenge genre. Couple has gone to party and on the way back they hit a deer and he went out to finish it when a jeep full of bad guys comes. He didn't go to their car, instead he has been kicked and well beaten while she tries to run the car engine which betray her and she has been gang raped.Then somehow she is in her fathers house and one of bad guys is her neighbor so she took shotgun and wanted to kill him... So stupid scenario! Bellow Hollywood ! He was against that revenge but "She is raped" "They laugh to her" so she must kill them all... But once inside the house she was satisfied by pushing rifle's top in bad guys anus and went away while he has gone crazy and execute bad guy. Personally I think that director run out of money before finishing this because movie ends before they execute anyone else involved in this gang-rape and beating which is not big surprise because sponsor obviously has seen this and wanted to take back his money. LoL This movie is not even for people who enjoy watching rape because they won't see anything they are looking for... This director should be banned...It is for upsetting that this peace of trash has been made by British cinematography which I personally like and that is the reason I've watched this. Don't do it yourself you have better things to do that watching stupid scenario film ...