New version of ’80s action film lacks character development
Approximately halfway into “Red Dawn,” Josh Hutcherson says, “We are living ‘Call of Duty,’ and it sucks.” I couldn’t have said it better myself, Josh.
There’s still plenty to be said about the latest action film striving to take the holidays by storm. For starters, this is a film that never should have been released after the postproduction changes in 2009, like the decision to make the villains in the movie Chinese instead of North Korean to prevent losing an international audience. Fortunately, the movie was shelved due to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer financial woes.
So why did MGM decide to take this sorry remake off the shelf? Because two of its main cast members, Hutcherson and Chris Hemsworth, have become so recognizable the studio felt they could give the film some added exposure. But they didn’t count on one thing: remaking a film that was originally nothing more than decent usually doesn’t work out well.
The movie begins with an opening montage of political clips that attempt to explain why the North Koreans decide to invade American soil, but it’s too vague to make any sense. The reasons aren’t nearly as important with this film as relevancy is, since today’s America has the Middle East, Iran and China to worry about more than North Korea.
We’re introduced to the main players in the closing minutes of one of the most patriotic ways to open an American film: a high school football game. Impetuous home team quarterback Matt (Josh Peck) loses the final game of the season while his father (Brett Cullen) and brother Jed (Hemsworth), a war veteran home on leave from Iraq, watch.
The following morning (and eight minutes into the film), parachuting North Koreans fill the skies of Spokane, Wash., and, for reasons unknown, hold all of the teenagers captive while the adults either die or switch sides. Only a handful of teenagers, including Matt and Jed, escape to a cabin in the woods and form a guerilla warfare team after Jed trains them in war combat.
From the moment the North Koreans land, “Red Dawn” becomes nothing more than a series of shaky-cam raids and maniacal editing. This is action at its most generic under the hands of stuntman-turned-director Dan Bradley.
Except for the teens holding up rifles and taking a stand, nothing about this film is believable, even how quickly these high school kids adjust to their new rebel lifestyle. This is a group of kids well-adjusted to their American football town, yet they quickly adapt to handling heavy-duty automatic weapons.
There’s really nothing memorable about this remake, especially when it comes to the characters. All of the minor characters get at least three lines every now and then, but they play out like disposable extras in a crappy teen horror franchise. The females (Isabel Lucas and Adrianne Palicki, two actresses I’ve never heard of) receive the least development of all, as they spend the entire film standing around looking pretty and only occasionally speaking.
Most of the screen time centers on Hemsworth and Peck and the sibling rivalry they share. Hemsworth gives Peck a couple of pep talks about responsibility and the team coming first before his own wishes. But all Peck wants to do is rescue his girlfriend from the North Koreans, which he keeps reminding us of through sequences of overactive emoting.
The dialogue, the plot, the character development and pretty much everything else are where this film topples, except for an unexpected twist toward the end. This is definitely not a great start for first-time director Bradley.