Red Dawn

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Saw it yesterday. I went in with very low expectations. It had already been painted as a problem production with the whole "Quick! Everything Chinese in the movie has to be made North Korean or China gets mad and that's bad for business! Why didn't we do that before starting to film?" Then the critics starte to see it and gave it the "Do Not Want!" label. I figured there'd be some neat explosions and gratuitous automatic weapons fire and and so-bad-its-good bits.

I was surprised to find that I actually kind of liked it. Although rather thinner in story, more predictable in plot (being a remake), still not as good as the original in many ways - yet actually better in a few, I found it enjoyable enough to declare that It Doesn't Suck.

 

[Keldin]

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to, 'cause one of my friends (a gamer, even) is in it, albiet in an uncredited role. It's not her first public movie (that was Machine Gun Preacher, I think), but it's the first time I heard about it when it was still in theaters. Red Dawn is one of my favorite older movies too, so I have high hopes. Still, good to know it doesn't suck.

 

[Crothian]

I found it to be enjoyable. It is as predictable as a straight line and the Chinese North Koreans is a bit silly. But I liked that they purposely gave the 6'4" Russian a different color hat so we could tell him apart from the rest of the bad guys.

Once the do say what is going on in the movie it sounds like the set up to Fortress America.

 

[Clangador]

I liked it, but still feel the original was better.

 

[Nytmare]

"Quick! Everything Chinese in the movie has to be made North Korean or China gets mad and that's bad for business! Why didn't we do that before starting to film?"

Films, in general, are made without anyone raising too many concerns about distribution. China made absolute, perfect sense as the bad guy in the movie right up until MGM almost went bankrupt, and then a year and a half later realized that China was the new treasure trove market for American films.

So they desperately needed money, and Red Dawn was going to be a complete wash unless they started grovelling and apologizing and making the bad guys someone else.

 

[NewJeffCT]

China made sense as an invader - they have 1.3 billion or so people and the second largest economy in the world. The USSR made sense back in the 80s for the original, as they had 300 million or so people and had a very powerful military.

North Korea is 25 million people and just doesn't have the manpower or technology to invade the US. (Unless they address that in the movie with some huge super-advancement or something?)

 

[Wycen]

Haven't seen it but I figure they could have hung a lantern on it and just had some dumb high schooler say "Chinese or Korea, who cares" though I suppose there might be worries of racism. Which makes me ask if the movie washes over that particular aspect of war.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

North Korea is 25 million people and just doesn't have the manpower or technology to invade the US. (Unless they address that in the movie with some huge super-advancement or something?)

They kinda hand-waived it with the excuse that they were getting some form of assistance from Russia.

 

[Nytmare]

For people who want more movies in this genre, there was a (moderately) ok film that's kicking off a series of popular teen adventure books called "Tomorrow, When the War Began."

It's basically Red Dawn in Australia with more angsty teen drama and an nigh incompetent invading army. It looked really nice though, and the mindless action was action-ey packed. The characters were your basic Breakfast Club cast of high school stereotypes. Also, if memory serves, it managed to just barely pass the Bechdel Test, though the fact that the other 99% of girl to girl conversations were about makeup or boys made me cringe.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Does the movie explain how they get here? Navy or airforce are both unbelivable from china, but I could go with it maybe...but NK?!? They cant keep there city lit at night