Red Dawn (2012) (WS/DVD)

As good as the first

Thank you, Chris.

'Red Dawn', the remake of the 1983 John Milius classic is a worthy one indeed.Hated by the critics but loved by fans for decades, the original had a story about Soviet troops invading the central US and dividing the country in two; a credible scenario offered up by former SecState Alexander Haig to director/producer John Milius and author Kevin Reynolds. The importance of the first film cannot be overstated; the mission to capture Saddam Hussein was called 'Operation Red Dawn' and carried out by Task Force 'Wolverine'.Looks like a lot of fans ended up in the US military command structure. The remake, starring Chris Hemsworth ('Thor') and an excellent cast (far better than the original, quite frankly) updates the story by replacing the Soviet invaders for those pesky North Koreans. Originally, when the film was first made (it sat on the shelf for 2 years; supposedly the studio thought it's oohrah! right wing politics not favorable to liberal left candidates and released it AFTER the 2012 election) the Red Chinese were the bad guys.They didn't like this one bit. So, the producers digitally removed all Chinese miltary insignia and flags and pasted the NK stamp on them. When released the critics mocked the the inclusion of Kim Jong Un's Stalinist nation. How could THEY threaten the US?Guess what? They did, and do now. As part of a multinational invasion force in the film, they are given the Pacific Northwest as their target of occupation, and the film starts off straight away with returning USMC veteran (Hemsworth) and his brother (Josh Peck) caught up in a parachute drop by NK troops, and head fror the hills with their boyhood buddies. For the most part, the film follows the original- including the inspired casting of Jeffery Dean Morgan in the iconic Powers Boothe role of the first film. He even is made up to look like Boothe a bit.Director Dan Bradley shoots the action very well, and there's lots of it. At a tidy 114 minutes the film rarely takes a break, but when it does you have the excellent Adrianne Palicki to help sort out the young cast. You wish there was more of her in this.Is this a great film for the ages? No.But as an action adventure, and a snapshot of our troubled world it pretty much rocks throughout...

It's a good movie. Now I just have to watch the original!

Not bad like the original better but pretty good for a remake

I don't believe this remake of the 1984 RED DAWN is as bad as many reviewers opine. But I agree it is not equal to the original. Nonetheless I say this 2012 remake is at least worth watching.I knew the remake was in the works for years, back in the autumn of 2009. But inexplicable delays appeared to slow down the start of filming and then other delays. Then there was the interference from the Red Chinese government who didn't like being portrayed as the villains. Given probably some not so subtle threats from the Red Chinese, MGM buckled and using computer CGI, transformed the PLA into the NKPA. This caused another year's delay. Finally the remake appeared in the theaters in 2012 to great anticipation. That the remake is lesser than the original and not even its equal is what I believed made many fans upset. But on it's own the 2012 Red Dawn is worth watching for mere entertainment. I too, expected a much bigger production for the remake but it turned out to be smaller in scope. I had expected to see more involvement of the U.S. military in the initial days of the invasion. But oddly besides seeing one F-16 Falcon blowing on PLA troop transport out of the air, that was it. The original has an Air Force colonel becoming something of a mentor to the original Wolverines. The remake has a six-year Marines veteran performing that job, which Jed (Chris Hemsworth) does well. There is one thing about the remake I really, really, really like, not said in the original. Jed tells the small group that this time, we (the Americans) are the BAD GUYS, and he really means it if you understand anything about insurgent warfare over the last fifty years. Jed is right. It's refreshing for Americans this time around not to have to worry about winning hearts and minds of foreign peoples who don't want to be won over. It's refreshing not to be so obsessed with being the good guys that we have our hands tied behind our backs and need the Pentagon's approval to shoot back in every firefight. It's refreshing not to have to worry about upsetting or offending American's allies and enemies even more. This time around our military objective is crystal clear: defeat the invaders and drive them out of our country. This time around we're not worried about the American and foreign media press looking to make us look like criminals. This time around there will be no regrets, no hesitation, and no bad feelings about killing the enemy and whoever is helping him. There was a fan website on the filming of RED DAWN 2012 from 2009. The website posted photos of various filming shoots in Spokane. It became clear after watching the movie that a lot more filming had been done but was later deleted or left on the cutting room floor. For example, website photos show more actors posing as black clad, baton-wielding, collaborator police. One of the actors was a young female and she isn't shown. There were probably more scenes showing the collaborator police harassing Spokane residents. In the movie you only see two of them but website photos show at least six collaborator police. The website showed more direct involvement of Russian Spetznaz special forces but not in the movie. There were more street battle chase scenes showing PLA HMMWVs careening down Spokane downtown streets. There was probably more footage filmed of the day of invasion showing the PLA airborne troopers landing in Spokane, taking over the city and clashing with city people. The director was probably under strict instructions to keep the movie's length reasonable but that may have worked against the movie's reception with the theater-attending public. Movie watchers will be intrigued to know that much of the city footage was not actually in Spokane but in the suburb cities around Detroit. As this review is being written, on Facebook there are reports that Ukrainians have been highly inspired by the RED DAWN movies, particularly the 1984 original. Reputedly RED DAWN proved popular in the Ukraine after it became independent with the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. Prior to that, RED DAWN would never have been allowed in the theaters in Ukraine and if it was, would have been booed loudly by the Ukrainians, who were loyal Soviet citizens at the time. Times radically change, doesn't it? As proof of the pudding, photos show up on Facebook showing spray-painted, "Wolverines", on destroyed Russian Federation tanks and armored vehicles. Go Wolverines!

All-time great movie! Even with it being a re-make of the original. Ever need a reminder of what the GREAT country of AMERICA was built on? Ever wonder how we earn our freedom?? Watch this movie!

Must watch

Who hasn’t imagined a foreign country invading, really.

A pesar de ser una copia mas actual de la pelicula original Red Dawn de 1984, si entretiene.

Articolo arrivato nei tempi e dentro la pellicola di plastica.Il film va a gusti, personalmente a me è piaciuto, non ho visto l'originale che come in molti casi si dice essere migliore, però se si ha voglia di una classica americanata d'azione non è male.

Ho trovato questo dvd molto interessante,trovo che jeffrey dean morgan è molto bravo dovrebbe lavorare di più secondo me spero che lo facciano!

Perfetto