Red Dawn Review

Disappointing remake of 1984 action pic.

Released in 1984, towards the tail end of The Cold War, Red Dawn was an action-packed and testosterone-fuelled tale of a group of teenagers banding together and fighting back when Soviet troops invade the United States. And while it's no classic, it has developed something of a cult following in the intervening years as a flag-waving flick that's dumb fun.

This remake – which was shelved for two years due to MGM's financial troubles – takes much the same plot but replaces the Russian threat with one from North Korea. The result is a film that actually feels like a Cold War relic, the characters one-dimensional, the effects second grade, the tone at times somewhat racist.

Which is a shame, as the opening credits promise much more – a marvellous montage of interviews, press conferences and newsreel footage that chart the rising tensions between the two nations.

We are then introduced to Jed Eckert (Chris Hemsworth), a Marine returning to his small Washington state town to catch up with father Tom (Brett Cullen) and brother Matt (Josh Peck), with whom he has a difficult relationship following the death of their mother.

But before they have a chance to figure out their differences, North Korean troops parachute in – via the means of amateurish CGI – and take control, securing the area, imprisoning anyone that they see as a threat, and killing those who fight back.

The boys manage to escape to their family's cabin in the woods however, the rest of the film dedicated to their forming an army they christen 'the wolverines' after their school's American Football team.

Cue a series of training montages (in which they seem to wastea lot of bullets) and missions into enemy territory as the youngsters endeavour to take their city back.

But where the movie's second half could have brought something new or different to the story – a comment on the war on terror or an examination of how collaboration can quickly becomes so prevalent in a situation like this – the narrative instead remains simplistic throughout.

In painting the characters in the the broadest of brush-strokes, the film also has racist undertones, the North Koreans relentlessly evil, an African-American father a coward, and a Russian General popping up in the film's second seemingly for the sole purpose of having another pop at that nation. And last time I checked, the Cold War had ended 20 years ago.

It's not helpful that the kids themselves are all somewhat aggravating, Josh Peck and Josh Hutcherson lacking the charm, charisma and acting chops to have you rooting for them, with Hemsworth the only male wolverine to come out of the film with much dignity. Female leads Isabel Lucas and Adrianne Palicki are given little to do other than to look pretty, or in the latter's case, run quite unconvincingly. And as for the extended advert for Subway? Well, it has to be seen to be believed.

Proceedings do improve when Jeffrey Dean Morgan shows up as a hard-as-nails solider willing to help the rag-tag bunch, while director Dan Bradley – who was stunt co-ordinator on the Bourne films – certainly knows his way around an action sequence.

But they say you shouldn't do a remake unless you are going to better the original or do something quite different. And Red Dawn fails on both fronts – the opportunity to take what's unquestionably a compelling subject and do something exciting with it utterly missed, the resulting film a pale shadow of the superior original.

THE VERDICT

The Red Dawn remake has sat on the shelf for two years, and maybe it should have stayed there.

IGN RATINGS FOR THE IGN RATING FOR RED DAWN

Rating	Description
out of 10	Click here for ratings guide
5.5 OVERALL	Mediocre (out of 10)