The jingoistic Red Dawn, in which North Korea invades America in the very near future, is the unfortunate movie Chris Hemsworth signed up for when he was still an unknown and maybe living, if not under a rock, perhaps in a pickup truck. After MGM went belly-up in ’09, Red Dawn was, for all intents and purposes, left on a shelf somewhere to gather dust – hence why it’s only now seeing the cold harsh light of day.
If you read the first sentence correctly, you’re probably wondering how North Korea (population 25 million) can raise enough invaders to attack the Unites States (population 315 million). Short answer is, thy probably can’t. You see the original screenplay for this remake named the invaders as Chinese. After principal photography was completed on the film three years ago, the enemy identity was changed to North Korea by reshooting several scenes, redubbing lots of dialogue and using digital adjustment to change the looks of flags, uniforms and insignia on trucks and tanks. Why? Because China is one of the biggest markets for American movie exports. North Korea, not so much.
In this remake of the 1984 cult classic, the able Hemsworth plays Jed Eckert, an emotionally bruised veteran on a visit home to Spokane after a few tours in the Middle East. His little brother Matt (Josh Peck) is the quarterback of his high school football team. After a prologue of talking heads giving a political “primer” on declining relations with North Korea, the film opens with Jed and the boys’ dad (Brett Cullen) watching in dismay as the Wolverines lose their game.
The brothers Eckert wake the very next day to the sight of North Korean paratroopers floating down from the sky. Spokane is soon under foreign control, as well as other American cities. The boys escape to their family’s hunting cabin with a crew of friends and acquaintances, including a pair of younger, handily tech-savvy geeks played by Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games) and Conor Cruise (son of Tom Cruise).
Under Jed’s tutelage they emerge as Wolverines – teenage ass-kickers raising hell for those dopey invaders, who bumble and stumble and can do little more than raise a frustrated fist at the pesky kids. Only one of them, their leader Captain Lo (Will Yun Lee) even gets a name.
Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas and Alyssa Diaz provide the girl power, all of which is very PG (no bunker hook-ups for these kids) while Peck projects such pained sensitivity that I had doubts about his characters ability to make a sandwich, let alone kill dozens of Koreans.
If the movie finds an audience, that audience will most likely be 14 and oblivious to the fact that there ever was an earlier Red Dawn.
Definitely one to stay away from.
