Okay, so I was watching the goriest of horror films by the second grade. I consider myself a jaded prick when it comes to dealing with the fictional plights and pretend emotions of the people I see on-screen. The original version of this movie bored me to death. By the time I had seen it, it was 'bleh', but the remake was entertaining and had me on the edge of my seat. Don't tell anyone, but I actually 'felt' bad for the tourist family once the real trouble started out in the desert. And thats rare, so this must be better than what I remember of the original, or I'm just getting soft in my old age.
I saw this with my wife and she hated it because it "didn't make any sense" (allthough I had told her the basic premise of "nuclear mutated desert family terroroizes doomed travelers" a'la cheap Texas Chainsaw Massacre rip-off concept + radiation). She was like "so what, is that all this is about??!?". So maybe for your average movie-goer, this one will be boring or leave them feeling like it was all a bit pointless. But I liked it. And the dog had more balls than any of the main characters.