40Cent @ the movies

[GDS_Starfury]

the original Red Dawn is awesome!

[Airborne Rifles]

the original Red Dawn is awesome!

I recently rewatched it.  It is a lot deeper and darker than I remembered.  The character development is a little sparse but it also follows the kids through a descent from survival to combatant to killing prisoners and wounded to killing their own.  Haven't seen the new one but I doubt it deals with themes that are quite as dark.     

[Arctic Blast]

the original Red Dawn is awesome!

As a drunken watch with buddies movie, sure.

[Windigo]

Saw Skyfall with my SLCG.....

meh

1/. Where was all the gadgetry (please no morality about high tech)
2/. This movie screamed low budget!
3/. I don't really give a crap about M.... (think they chintzed out on the screen writers too)
4/. They villan was awesome... best part of the movie.
5/. Who ever has the rights to the James Bond franchise.... you suck!

Score:  2.5 Olives out of 5

[Longdan]

The only good thing I can remember about the original Red Dawn
was a drunken buddy acting out the movie in its entirety - right
down to the cute dimple in Lea Thompson's chin as she fired her
Russian machine gun - in under 2 minutes.  The part where Jennifer
Grey gets blown up was cute.  Wolverines!!  OMG.

[mirth]

Any movie that has Jennifer Grey getting blown up is a great movie.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Saw Skyfall with my SLCG.....

meh

1/. Where was all the gadgetry (please no morality about high tech)
2/. This movie screamed low budget!
3/. I don't really give a crap about M.... (think they chintzed out on the screen writers too)
4/. They villan was awesome... best part of the movie.
5/. Who ever has the rights to the James Bond franchise.... you suck!

Score:  2.5 Olives out of 5

I agree with everything but point number 4.  I thought the villain was boring and lazily written.  Evil genius computer hacker?  Really?  That just tells me the writers don't have any really clever ideas so they just throw in whatever plot twist or mcguffin they want and say "he totally hacked the system to make that happen!".  Lame. 

[MetalDog]

I was 14 when Red Dawn came out and I TOTALLY wanted that to happen so I could go live in the woods with hot chicks and kill Commies.  The new movie is nowhere NEAR as fun :-(

[Longdan]

I was considerably older when it came out and had knocked around a bit.
Maybe that is why it did not impress.

[Centurion40]

I saw it this afternoon.  This Red Dawn, objectively, is better than the original (at least production-value wise).  At worst, this redux is a decent action flick, in parts. I must confess that I didn't go into the theater this afternoon expecting to see Red Dawn (I was expecting to see a chick flick with the wife).  Therefore I had no built-up apprehensions or vain hopes; I saw it cold and I'm shocked to say that it is better than I expected (probably because I was expecting utter crap).

I was 20 when I saw the original; young enough that it still was able to hit the right notes with me to resonate- as far fetched as it was.  It still holds a warm place in my heart.  This version is not a carbon-copy with a different baddie.  There are subtle and overt differences, enough that an admirer of the original should not be totally put-off.  And I have to confess that this version was able to hit a few of those same notes 29 years later; my to my total amazement.

This one is no less far fetched; the pacific-northwest is invaded and subjugated by North Korea.  Yep starving enough to eat the neighbor's cat North Korea.  If you can get past that, then you'll be able to enjoy the movie.  Jed (the role originally played by Patrick Swayze) is a battle veteran Marine, home on leave between tours.  He trains and leads the rag-tag teens to become the Wolverines.  Toni (this time played by a very hot Adrienne Palicki, instead of Jennifer Grey) really captures the screen as does Thor.

SPOILERS (such as they are) AHEAD!

I say again: SPOILERS AHEAD!  I'm about to detail some of the story deviations from the original.

The Wolverines, instead of coming across a downed "Free America" fighter-pilot, are found by small "Free America" Special Forces team and are enlisted to assist the team complete a mission vital to the Free American war effort against the Norks.  The Mayor's son is not complicit in his betrayal of the group.  He ends-up getting tagged with a tracking device, by some Spetnaz (yes, they show-up in this version too) during a scuffle.  The Wolverines not only get hunted by Spetnaz, they also get shelled by Nork arty.  The movie ends, not with a flash forward to a post-war monument to the Wolverines, but with Jed's brother (the now mature high school quarterback) giving a speech to an all-ages mixed group of new recruits to the Woverine's resistance army.

SPOILERS OFF

The new Red Dawn is no more likely to win awards than the old Red Dawn.  But if you've got nothing better to do, this one is not a complete waste of time, unless you're some sort of sophisticate.  And if that's the case, WTF are you doing here??!!

27 out of 40

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I saw it today. 

I dunno, it felt kinda low budget.  You didn't get the sense that there was a larger war going on like you did in the first one.  There was no real passage of time and it felt like there were just a handful of Koreans hanging out in downtown Spokane (except wherever they filmed it looked nothing like the real Spokane).  It also felt kind of cheap that they showed a bunch of T-90 type tanks on transporters at the very beginning, but that was the last you saw of non-US vehicles.  After that it was just Koreans in Humvees, LAV-25s and M1 tanks. 

Wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but I thought they would've upped the budget over the original, not scaled it back.  Remember how cool it was to see Hinds and Shilkas and stuff in the original?

[Staggerwing]

I saw it today. 

I dunno, it felt kinda low budget.  You didn't get the sense that there was a larger war going on like you did in the first one.  There was no real passage of time and it felt like there were just a handful of Koreans hanging out in downtown Spokane (except wherever they filmed it looked nothing like the real Spokane).  It also felt kind of cheap that they showed a bunch of T-90 type tanks on transporters at the very beginning, but that was the last you saw of non-US vehicles.  After that it was just Koreans in Humvees, LAV-25s and M1 tanks. 

Wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but I thought they would've upped the budget over the original, not scaled it back.  Remember how cool it was to see Hinds and Shilkas and stuff in the original?

(Psst... the Hinds were not real. Neither were the Shilkas or the T-72s... sorry :()

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I know, but at least they looked the part.  In the new version, they didn't even make the effort.  i wonder if it's because they went and changed the baddies from Chinese to Norks.  The paratroops in the opening scene looked like they were carrying the Type 95 assault rifle, but all subsequent scenes had AKs.

http://screenrant.com/red-dawn-villains-china-north-korea-schrad-106177/

[Staggerwing]

I know, but at least they looked the part. 

I suppose back then anything painted tan with spots and equipped with chunky anhedral wings sporting rocketpods would look like it was Russian. Those mutant Pumas were used in a number of later movies. Nowadays you can buy real custom made Hind-Ds from companies in South Africa, among others.

[Longdan]

Next thing you are going to tell us it wasn't real when Jennifer Grey got blown up.
You are like those guys who doubt Hogan's Heroes and Santa and Baby Jesus. 
If they blew up Jennifer Grey again I would go and see it.