The Red Dawns: a comparison

Hollywood's constant idea of recycling old successful movies has become irritating(with the exception of Star Trek) More so than those other remade films, Red Dawn was a period piece which played into a specific '80s obsession: “The Cold War”...The Communists are out to get us! Updating the scenario to the 21^st century, who's the enemy now? Well initially the filmmakers made China the enemy, but shortly after finishing production realized, "Oh wait it might not be such a good idea to tick off China". So after being shelved for 2 years, changes were made to the remake and the bad guys became North Korea. The 1984 Red Dawn was about not backing down and fighting for freedom. 28 years later, we are totally happy to neuter our super-patriotic movies so as not to offend a country whose money we want and need.

Because of this (the remake) I didn't buy that it was guerrilla warfare. It seemed more like either a weekend survivalist retreat with some poorly staged battle sequences or a fun game of capture the flag. Even though there are some scenes that try to play homage to the original, such as the drinking of the deer blood, they mostly fall flat. When one of the wolverines states their situation is just like Modern Warfare, I have to disagree. Modern Warfare is more believable.

Chris Hemsworth as Jed, is likeable but the rest of the cast lacks the chemistry of the original  cast. I idolized the Wolverines of the first movie, they were fighting for our country. These new wolverines seemed like wannabe thugs who were given toys and spent most of their time blowing up stuff.

And if this wasn't irritating enough the filmmakers tried to convince us that the youth of America are just one bad-ass training montage away from becoming guerrilla warriors, a group that are suppose to stir up a lot of patriotic fervor defending their homeland. Instead we are shown whiny image-conscious, spoiled brats.(Like those self-involved kids in horror flicks you take pleasure in watching die at the hands of the hacksaw murderer hiding in the woods)

So the best advice I can give you is if you were around for the first Red Dawn you probably really don't want to waste your time on this new forgettable one! But if you aren't part of Generation X you might want to consider watching the remake before taking on the original.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the filmmakers and studio might be wanting to make the film into a franchise with sequels, due to how the remake ended.

If this is the case may God have mercy on our souls.