Red Dawn

I'm not sure what is Hollywood's fascination with remakes. Is it to make easy money, or are they running out of ideas, or is that all things eventually end up making a circle? Maybe it's a combination of all these aspects, but whatever it is, the remakes, most of the time, aren't ever as well thought out as their predecessors. That being said, we now have "Red Dawn". Not only is this a remake, but one that wasn't made originally too many years earlier-- 1984 with Patrick Swayze and C. Thomas Howell seems to come to mind.

Spokane, Washington awakens to the surreal sight of foreign paratroopers dropping from the sky-- shockingly, the U.S. has been invaded by the North Koreans, and their hometown is the initial target. Quickly and without warning, the citizens find themselves prisoners and their city being under enemy capture. Determined to fight back, a group of young patriots headed up by marine, Jed Eckert (Chris Hemsworth) and includes his brother, Matt (Josh Peck), and friends, Robert Kitner (Josh Hutcherson), Toni Walsh (Adrianne Palicki), Erica Martin (Isabel Lucas), Daryl Jenkins(Connor Cruise), Danny (Edwin Hodge), Julie (Alyssa Diaz), and Greg (Julian Alcaraz), seek refuge in the wooded outskirts of town, training and reorganizing themselves into a guerrilla fighting team. Taking inspiration from their high school mascot, they end up calling themselves the Wolverines, banding together to protect one another, liberate their city from its captors which is headed up by Captain Cho (Will Yun Lee), and take back their freedom which they will soon find out that it bears a terrible cost.

Others to round out the cast are Brett Cullen as Tom Eckert, police officer Dad to Jed and Matt, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Tanner, a marine, Fernando Chien as Lt. Pak, a marine, Kenneth Choi as Smith, Matt Gerald as Hodges, another marine, and Steve Lenz as Pete.

This was directed by virtual newcomer to feature films, Dan Bradley. If his name sounds familiar, it's because he has been a stunt coordinator on a ton of films, so he has worked with many actors in that capacity. So it's not a stretch that the directing here was decent. He should go far. It was written by Carl Ellsworth and Jeremy Passmore based on the 1984 screenplay by Kevin Reynolds and John Milius which was based on Reynold's story. This is where the film didn't fair as well. The original had more dialogue so as to get to know the characters more, whereas in this, it was much more explosions and gunfire. Hey, it was only an hour and thirty-three minute running time, so they had to cut to chase fairly quick.

If you're an adrenaline junkie, you'll revel, but if you're looking for more character development, you know, getting to know the people you're rooting for more, then this will leave putting in notches on your belt as the body count only rises.

Out of 4 stars: 2.5                     Rated: PG-13                       93mins.