Aylmer to Zazzoo and Beyond: Red Dawn

Friday, November 23, 2012

Red Dawn - Review

Red Dawn
(2012 - November 21 )
Action
1 hr. 33 min.

Rated: PG-13 Sequences of intense war violence and action, and language
Grade: D+

Director: Dan Bradley
Writers: Carl Ellsworth (screenplay), Jeremy Passmore (screenplay),
Kevin Reynolds (1984 screenplay and story) John Milius (1984 screenplay)
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Isabel Lucas and Josh Hutcherson | See full cast and crew

American city awakens to the surreal sight of foreign paratroopers dropping from the sky – shockingly, the U.S. has been invaded and their hometown is the initial target. Quickly and without warning, the citizens find themselves prisoners and their town under enemy occupation. Determined to fight back, a group of young patriots seek refuge in the surrounding woods, training and reorganizing themselves into a guerilla group of fighters. Taking inspiration from their high school mascot, they call themselves the Wolverines, banding together to protect one another, liberate their town from its captors, and take back their freedom.

This is a remake no one was asking for and no one needed. It takes a mediocre film, Red Dawn (1984) and remakes it into an even worse film, it does nothing to improve the original, except for the quality of the explosions. It fails on multiple levels; the nauseating hand held camera technique, the horrendously flawed new screenplay, awful directing and the generally abysmal acting.

This updated take on Red Dawn completed filming more than two years before its release, quite some time before Hemsworth became a god wielding his mighty hammer in Thor or before Hutcherson competed in The Hunger Games.

Originally scheduled to be released on November 24, 2010, the film was shelved due to MGM's financial problems. While in post-production, the invading army was changed from Chinese to North Koreans in order to maintain access to China's huge and growing box office. In May of this year the Chinese Government (via front company, Dalian Wanda Group, China's biggest movie theater operator) bought AMC Entertainment, America's second largest theater chain, for $2.6 Billion. This is China's biggest takeover of an American company yet and makes Dalian Wanda the world's largest theater group. AMC's day-to-day operations will remain unchanged and Wanda will invest an additional $500 million to fund AMC's development. AMC's American management will remain in place and headquartered in the Kansas City area. The company employs some 18,500 people. It would be a gross understatement to imply that China is aware of the value that cinema can play in the world of propaganda. With Wanda's vast resources there is no question that this positions China to wield influence in what Hollywood produces in the future due to this new dominance in global film distribution. Perhaps the first incidence being the changing of the antagonists in Red Dawn from Chinese to North Koreans.

Anyway, back to Red Dawn. As I was saying these two, Hemsworth and Hutcherson, have a great deal of screen presence and their box-office appeal should draw in audiences of a particular age who will pay to see either of these men in anything, who will want to cheer for them in this patriotic pep rally, who might want to see them as a very different type of 'young warrior'. This remake might be passable for those excited by eye candy holding guns and clucking patriotic cheers, and explosions, but it is inferior to the original in virtually every aspect.

It is all too clear that neither Hemsworth's Thor like charm nor Hutcherson's wholesome boy next door attractiveness is able to rescue this lame, feeble, clumsy material and directing. The performances are underwhelming including the particularly egregious acting by Isabel Lucas as Erica, Matt's attractive yet personality-free girlfriend, but she certainly isn't the sole offender. Josh Peck is entirely unconvincing as the high school football hero quarterback. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and two other 40-something actors, show up for the final act as the Wolverines' experienced soldier backup, bringing a little weight to the cast but it is far too little and far too late.

Most remakes try to offer an inventive twist or a realistic updating or modernization from the original. This film, not so much, here the filmmakers decided it was a good idea to digitally alter the invading army's nationality from Chinese to North Korean (as if they're saying all East Asians look alike), and then they, not-so-subtly, kill off every cast member of color like in a stereotypical horror movie -- every black and Hispanic teen meets his or her demise, while most of the white kids survive. Then there were the added clips of Obama, Biden and Clinton which were absolutely nauseating, I caught myself hissing at the screen, but I digress. Anyway, in the typical liberal social relativism, so prevalent in Hollywood, we are to view 'The Wolverines' a.k.a. The People's Liberation Army as comparable to the Iraqi insurgents or the Viet Cong 'liberators' and 'freedom fighters'.

We are also asked to believe that a group of teenagers from Spokane, Washington can achieve what the entire US military can not, that the North Korean invaders are so invincible that they could occupy the USA, yet they are so easily defeated by one marine and the cast of Scooby-Doo which he has trained to be SEAL Team 6 in a matter of a few days, but let's not get into all the plot holes, it would take way too long to enumerate them all.

Is Red Dawn an apocalyptic story — not really, it's more a story about the fall of America, how 'her chickens have come home to roost'. Our current political leadership is dedicated to seeing America knocked down a few pegs, to seeing our sovereignty relinquished to some kinder and gentler, wiser global entity like the United Nations.

So, America is getting what it deserves for being a big bad bully, for growing greedy, soft and complacent from our ungodliness, liberalism and political correctness or from too much soy in our diet or whatever. Me, I place the blame on the ungodliness, liberalism and political correctness (although soy is also nasty, tofurkey for thanks giving diner or a big glass of soy milk with your pumpkin pie...I don't think so).

But back again once more to the movie, the fact still remains that there is no authenticity in this badly flawed film, just one example, a few minutes after their friends and comrades are killed in battle big bad principled marine Jed and his wannabe girlfriend drinking beer and flirting.

In the original Red Dawn staring Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen there was an emotional connection that included actual conversations, but in this version the brotherly talks between Peck and Hemsworth are forced, disingenuous and virtually forgettable, in fact forgettable is an accurate descriptor for this absurd and regrettable remake.

Cast