Red Dawn

 

I will admit right from the start that I was excited about Red Dawn.  There will never be a time when I am not excited about an action film when I am a fan of the leading actor.

The fact that Red Dawn is a remake of an alleged 1980’s classic means nothing to me.  I understand the adoration lavished upon 80’s action films but as I am not of that generation I don’t really care – come and see me in twenty-five years time when they remake the Bourne films.

PLOT:  A quiet morning in Suburban USA is interrupted when North Korea invades.  US Marine Jed Eckhert (Chris Hemsworth) rounds up his brother Matt (Josh Peck) and a group of teenagers and before we can all sing Team America the Wolverines deploy guerrilla tactics on the streets of Downtown USA to annoy the North Koreans.  Subway is the last franchise standing.  END PLOT

Whether it is 1984 or 2013 there is no hiding the fact that the entire premise of Red Dawn is ridiculous.  Action films are usually viewed for pure escapism but even I struggled to suspend reality for the 93min running time. 

The ridiculous concept clashed heavily with the overly serious tone – a bit of tongue in cheek humour may have helped but there were no laughs or witty quips.  Attempting to make Red Dawn a serious war film only highlighted its flaws.

The action was fine but unremarkable although, in fairness to the film, there were decent attempts to keep the idea of teenagers in a military setting grounded. 

Chris Hemsworth is a capable lead and walks away with his dignity left intact.  The supporting cast which included Jeffrey Dean Morgan (born to play a Marine) and Adrianne Palicki were all fine.

I am blessed with a big family but also cursed as this means I have watched more children’s television in recent years that I would have liked.  As Drake and Josh are sworn enemies of mine I was never going to warm to Josh Peck. Unfortunately Peck was horribly miscast as Hemsworth’s younger brother and my hatred was inflamed. 

The miscasting was all the more glaring whenever you saw Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson together – they had much more chemistry and would have made a much better pairing.  Hutcherson was surprisingly decent and like Hemsworth can walk away not looking too embarrassed.

North Korea was fine as the villain and didn’t do much aside from transport prisoners around in a yellow bus and scowl occasionally in the general direction of the Wolverines. 

Despite the ridiculous premise Red Dawn should have worked as a fun action comedy but as it took itself far too seriously it was, at best, a wasted opportunity.

Red Dawn is one of those films that isn’t good but you cannot bring yourself to admit that it is bad.  It gets a 5.5/10 and may just find its way onto my dvd shelf if I spy it on sale.