Going in, I honestly thought this movie was going to suck. Why is that, you ask? Two reasons in particular. One, if you remember back, the original 1984 movie really wasn't all that good. Yeah I know, we THOUGHT it was but truth be told, it was borderline bad, even with Patrick Swayze. The premise was sooo far out there, Russians landing troops in your backyard, that it almost made you scratch your head. But in the time of Reagan and Mother Russia being the big evil of the day, why not capitalize on that fear for a few dollars. Number two, this remake was pulled together by first time director Dan Bradley. Usually the words "first time director" makes me save my money or see something else. Dan, in his previous career was nothing more than a stunt man, and at one point in his career played Jason Vorhees for a day while shooting Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI back in 86. Basically, he spent all his time in front of the camera being pulled, pushed, and landing on matts with fake glass flying all around him, which if you see Red Dawn, is pretty much all that's on the screen. Dan spent no time behind the camera but he didn't do such a bad job.
Red Dawn deals with some serious sibling rivalry between Chris Hemsworth's Jed Eckert and Josh Peck's Matt Eckert. Matt's a cowboy who never thinks about the team, only his own glory and Jed is a Marine whose only concern is for the team and not himself, ever. Their father is the sheriff of Spokane, WA. Tom Eckert played by Brett Cullen and all three men have had to learn to adjust to each other when the matriarch of the family passed away years ago. Matt never forgave Jed for joining the Marines and leaving him when their mother died and Jed never realized how wrong he was for doing so until the North Koreans started dropping troops into tiny, sleepy Spokane. At least you're supposed to believe they're North Koreans (HEY, JUST GO ALONG WITH IT, OKAY?). Jed and Matt race to get out of town and in the process of doing so while dodging troops with automatic weapons, pick up Josh Hutcherson who plays Robert Kitner and Conner Cruise (son of Tom Cruise, yes THAT Tome Cruise) who plays Daryl Jenkins.
The rest of the cast includes Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Edwin Hodge, Alyssa Diaz, Julian Alcaraz, Jeffery Dean Morgan, and the evil Will Yun Lee and Capt. Cho, the North Korean prefect of the greater Spokane area. After watching their father take a bullet in the head, and with a rag tag bunch of teens, Jed decides they need to stay and fight. Seems like a radical idea, especially when NONE of the group has so much as ever touched a gun outside of himself before. All of a sudden though, after a few short training exercises these kids take to combat like fish out of water. They're jumping, shooting, creating diversions, and planting explosives like Black Op soldiers. They call themselves The Wolverines after the towns football team and they don't really have a mission, just maim and kill until the ammo and the C-4 runs out. That is until Jeffery Dean Morgan's character Tanner and his two other "unretired" Marines show up looking for those Wolverines. They are seeking assistance in trying to acquire the North Koreans radio.
More shooting, jumping, and running ensues as The Wolverines and the unretired Marines storm the stronghold of the Koreans. This is where the movie takes a huge leap into WTF Land! But if you can suspend reality and all common sense then you just may enjoy that sequence. Bottom line questions are, is Red Dawn an entertaining film? Yes it is. Did it have potential to be even better? Absolutely. Is it worth the price of admission? That depends. If you are going to see it to watch young white suburban kids kick North Koreans asses then you will get your moneys worth. If you are going for some other reason, like say you liked the original and you wanted to see the updated version, I would wait for DVD. Remember, the original 1986 movie really wasn't all that good, just sayin'. BUT (and that's a big but) if you could see yourself picking up arms and risking life and limb to fight a foreign invader, if that idea excites you and gives you good bumps then Red Dawn is your movie.
The cinematography was amateurish at best. At its best, it looked like it was shot by kids in high school, at its worse it made you want to puke. I am a HUGE fan of the stedi-cam, the handheld camera, not so much. I understand Dan wanted to make you feel like you were right there, in the middle of the mad scramble, right in the middle of all that action but there were moments where I felt like I was going to puke. The handheld thing was truly annoying and was thankfully moved away from as the movie went on. The score by Ramin Djawadi was ignorable. It didn't stand out in ANY way, it didn't deliver any heroic themes and it was only cued up during the time when you aren't looking for any music, during the action sequences. As a stand alone score, it's good but in the movie, you won't remember it. If you do go see Red Dawn remember, I warned you! I'll see you at the the theater!
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