Red Dawn

The United States gets invaded by North Korea. That pretty much sums up the ludicrousness of the film. I mean, the original had Soviet Union being the invading force, which at least played to the fears and politics of the time. This didn't have the guts to go with Russia - although they kinda did - but couldn't they haven chosen anything else but North Korea?

Not that it really matters. The whole premise is silly, but so is the movie as a whole. And the worst thing is that it tries to take itself way too seriously. The tone is grim and dark, the characters suffer, there's death and dismemberment, the whole gruesome nine yards. And throughout this whole ordeal were supposed to believe that North Korea successfully invaded the only superpower of our time. Yeah... no.

And the worst thing is that I've seen this idea done much better. I haven't seen the original film, but there's a film called Tomorrow, When the War Began, released a few years before this one, which takes place in Australia and has China as the invading force. Well, they don't explicitly specify the nation. But it's China. And yes, it's a stupid, silly film as well, but it acknowledges it. It's a teenage action-comedy and has much greater camp value because of it. The main characters are teenagers, like in this film, but the ludicrousness of the situation is turned to the film's advantage through decent writing and characters. And it still gets to have its guns akimbo action scenes and character deaths needed to sell the point that war is not actually such a hot idea.

So, to summarize, if the premise interests you, see Tomorrow, When the War Began instead. Enough said.

If you're thinking, hey wait a minute, how can the country with some of the worlds most malnorished troops, where middle class couples rent food for wedding photos, invade the us.

It's because the director couldn't use china, which was the invading country in the source material, which makes infinitely more sense, little bit ironic. Considering the premise of the movie.

XD.

This is a remake of the campy 80s classic. It stars Chris Hemsworth , Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, and Connor Cruise. There's nothing the actors could do to save this ridiculously illogical story.

Whereas the original had the US invaded by Russia and Latin America, this one is invaded by North Korea. At least the 80s version passed the smell test. This one is just too stupid. Originally, this 2012 version was supposed to be Chinese which actually had a chance. But the change is the new history of Hollywood financing. This movie was held up in editing hell. The Chinese money didn't like to be shown as the bad guys. So a painstaking re-editing changed all the Chinese soldiers into North Koreans.

As for the story, it's still basically the same idea. Except this time there is some kind of fantastical briefcase that explains the success of the foreign invaders. It just adds another element of disbelief into the movie. I like most of the actors in this, but there are too many unreasonable things to buy into.

This is a remake of a 1980s film where America gets occupied by the Soviet Union and Cuba . Hardly a credible premise but you have to meet it on its own right wing terms . Originally this remake was going to feature an occupation of America by the Chinese . Hardly a credible premise but the fact American films get shown in China nowadays means there's a massive potential market and being worried about losing money the producers then changed the enemy invasion force to the North Koreans . This is where the whole movie collapses from the outset

Some people have defended this film on the grounds that such an invasion could be possible down to the fact that NK has an army of one million people under arms . Indeed it does but this misses out that it lacks any logistical capacity . While amateurs talk tactics professionals talk logistics . NK lacks any force projection . By this I mean it lacks any capacity to invade neighbouring countries . It has no real serviceable navy and even a possible invasion of South Korea would involve hundreds of thousands of troops being transported in either trucks or on foot so any surprise attack on America by NK is laughable . The screenplay does try to get around this unconvincing premise by stating the Koreans have launched an attack by EMP weapons that have destroyed America's communication systems and are are being helped by the Russians though it's never stated why the Russians would be brothers in arms with North Korea

John Milius wrote the original RED DAWN as a right wing wish fulfillment . The world has changed beyond all recognition since then so what's the political subtext ? Is there one ? I'm not sure . One of the protagonists is a former veteran of the Iraqi conflict and leading the band of guerrilla fighters he makes the point " When I was abroad we were the good guys because we brought order . Now we're the bad guys because we bring chaos " I fail see the thinking behind this . Order=good , chaos = bad ? How is that then ? Surely it should be democracy good , tyranny bad ? If you're expecting any profound discussion about the difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter you're watching the wrong film because the remake of RED DAWN is more concerned about setting up action packed set-pieces where brave Americans kill nasty Asiatic commies

Even then the action scenes collapse when you give them any thought . Don't the North Korean soldiers have things like road blocks where anyone passes through has to be searched for weapons ? There's also a lack of internal continuity . You can guarantee that when the script demands it there's literally thousands of NKs patrolling the streets of the city then when the guerrillas launch an attack there's only a handful of North Koreans who are cannon fodder , then the good guys are back in their camp safe and sound . Why didn't the thousands of communists just head them off in the pass ?

The original film was bad enough but this one is worse . You can perhaps say this remake has better action scenes but for an action scene to successfully work then there has to still an element of credibility involved and everything about this film lacks any credible element and feels anachronistic in any point it might be making . Indeed in the 1980s American control was criticised in case America became a target of foreign invasion . Try claiming people should be allowed access to guns in case of a sneak attack by North Korea and listen to the laughter

I'm sure this movie shows more or less how it looked when US forces dropped in to say hello in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 30 year old teenagers in this movie throw out mercilessly sub par dialog like "This is not their land. This is our back yard and we're going to fight for it," or "they killed our father, we have to fight or die." I'm sure that's what they said in Fallujah too when good ol' George W. sent his invading army to destroy their country. Aaameeerica, Aaameeerrrrriiiicaa!! God save them all, they do make me laugh and cry at the same time.

Enough has already been said in previous reviews about the wildly idiotic plot and lazy directing. Rather get the 1984 version. At least it had some heart in it, though the plot was just as ludicrous, playing on the strange fear of communism America has always fostered.

One more thing! Modern movies (this one being no exception) way overuse the lazy technique of compressing together various sorts of character growth sequences into a few minutes. It's very annoying and shows a lack of skill on everyones part.