Red Dawn

Welcome to another episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is Red Dawn.

Directed by Dan Bradley.

Written by Carl Ellsworth & Jeremy Passmore.

Based on the screenplay "Red Dawn" written by Kevin Reynolds & John Milius.

Screen story by Kevin Reynolds.

Review #193

MPAA Rating: PG-13 PG-13 for sequences of intense war violence and action, and for language.

Run Time: 114 min

Cast

Chris Hemsworth...Jed Eckert

Josh Peck...Matt Eckert

Josh Hutcherson...Robert Kitner

Adrianne Palicki...Toni Walsh

Isabel Lucas...Erica Martin

Connor Cruise...Daryl Jenkins

Edwin Hodge...Danny

Brett Cullen...Tom Eckert

Alyssa Diaz...Julie

Julian Alcaraz...Greg

Will Yun Lee...Captain Cho

Jeffrey Dean Morgan...Tanner

Fernando Chien...Lt. Pak

John Milius has had an interesting film career. He's written and directed for Film, TV and even Video Games. Some of his highlights include Apocalypse Now, Medal of Honor: European Assault (VG), Rome and of course Conan the Barbarian. Another film he's responsible for is 1984's Red Dawn. This was nothing special. It wasn't a great movie. In fact it might be hard to call it a good movie. The one thing it is however is a cult favorite. The premise though ridiculous as it sounded was feasible in the eyes of an audience that could care less about details and just wanted to have fun. So what does Hollywood do 28 years later?

Let's remake it.

I've given up complaining about this particular topic. Remakes will forever be linked to this generation of film making. Sadly due to the lack of vision or just plain blatant apathy. Originality and creativity is stifled and suppressed by the opportunity to make a quick buck.

It's an inevitable fact.

Now some remakes have worked. True Grit, King Kong (2005), Dawn of the Dead, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Fly and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) are a few off the top of my head. So there is proof that remakes can be good and even on the rarest occasions make you prefer the updated version over it's predecessor. That being said, for all the good ones there are dozens of bad ones. Real bad ones. Really really real bad ones. Where does this new Red Dawn fit? Here's a hint.

It's not on the good list.

The biggest component with all failed remakes revolve around one thing. A severe lack of attention to the original source material. The powers that be insist on trying to be original with an idea that's already been out. The way they do that is tweak some story points some major some minor. Or change the motivations of some of the main characters. This is what puts their own stamp on a film that's already been made. It's a cry for attention by egotistical Tinseltown wimps who never had a creative or original thought in their lives. This applies to all factions of the film making world. Writers, Producers and Directors are all guilty of this and should all be spanked. More importantly it's just stupid.

Clearly the phrase "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn't apply to these pioneers of the motion picture industry.

What I would love to know is what goes through the heads of the people responsible for the changes that are made and who approves them. Godzilla, Psycho (1998), Swept Away, The Pink Panther and Clash of the Titans are some examples. All of them fall victim to the let's change what worked so well for the originals syndrome. What's worse is the changes that were made were so awful that these films have no chance of redemption.

What's my point you may ask? Red Dawn's biggest change was necessary to get the film made.

It's also the reason why it fails.

Plot

A group of teenagers look to save their town from an invasion of North Korean soldiers. 

The original Red Dawn wasn't a revolutionary piece of film making. What it was was relevant. The film was made during a time of political unrest between The US and Russia. Hollywood took full advantage of that and cashed in on hometown pride by making Russia every film's villain. It's very similar today when you see a film and a former soldier is coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan. With North Korea being the antagonists this time around (with an assist from Russia of course) the feel isn't the same as the original.

More importantly I just didn't care. 

So with the story and the villain's motivations not working out. Hopefully the action will be able to pace the film through it's typical robotic plot devices right?

NOPE!

The action was bland and uninspiring. Some slack has to be given here considering the warriors in this picture are kids or young adults who've never held a gun in their lives. This was a fact that the people behind this remake failed to capitalize. It would have given Red Dawn a bigger sense of realism if these kids were more reckless or off the mark with their weapons or tactics. Of course in this HDD generation we live in, there's no time to properly develop the training of these kids. Instead we get the always popular montage to cheat the passage of time as these knuckleheads hone their skills in the art of tactical warfare.

The end results are just pitiful and even worse nonsensical.

I realize I'm being a bit rough on this film when major liberties must be taken to watch this one. That being said the biggest crime this remake commits is that it cheats. What I mean by that is Red Dawn sets up an obstacle for the Wolverines that seems impossible. Like trying to get to a certain area unseen that's crawling with bad guys for example. And like all films loaded with lazy writing or direction, instead of devising a feasible way to solve the problem the next cut is our heroes magically at the place they needed to get to with no explanation or shots of how they got there.

They must have gone to the Damon Lindelof school of screenwriting.

These are things I can't forgive. Even for a film as silly as this one. Now the obvious response I hear is "If you're so smart Damien, How would you have done it differently?" My answer is always the same. I would NEVER put my characters in a situation that I couldn't write them out of in a plausible way. Everyone's got an imagination but it's important to reign that in to a certain degree so story integrity can be maintained. That doesn't happen here at any point and the movie falls apart because of it. The rest of the subplots also just feel thrown in to give the characters some form of humanity but it doesn't work when they don't feel human before hand.

I will give this film one piece of credit. They had the balls to throw a major twist to one of the main characters. I have to admit I didn't see it coming and for films this bad I can spot what happened a mile away.

All told. Red Dawn was a waste of time and made at the wrong time. Then again, there's never a good time to make a bad film.

On the 5 star scale. Red Dawn gets .5 stars with a "Save The Loot!" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today. Up next is Life of Pi.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"