I liked it more than the original (though, to be fair, that's a pretty low bar to clear), but this is not terribly interesting. Good action, but it's almost entirely without a satirical edge or any topical commentary. And it was so obviously shot three years ago.

Of course the Russians ended up being behind it all, too. Can't trust a Ruskie.

Hilariously bad. This is the kind of movie that drinking games are spawned from. Every single one of the characters is an absolute idiot - they reminded me of the 'victims' from Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil thrown into an action movie. None of it makes any sense, it's poorly edited, the acting is awful, the script may be the year's worst...the list goes on. The worst actor hands down is Josh Peck. Whoever decided he would not only be believable as a high school jock but also an action hero should have been fired on the spot. Isabel Lucas is also awful. Adrianne Palicki, Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson were fine - at least their performances weren't embarrassing and were serviceable for an action film. Palicki needs a new agent though. She's so talented and I wish she'd quit wasting her time in movies like this. D+

Disliked. It was striving toward "meh" but when Hemsworth fell under his dad's desk (during the big battle at the police station towards the end), knew his dad's desk-lock combination, and pulled out a gun to shoot the bad guy, the movie veered into the realm of "hate." The Russian beret dude got off pretty easy so far as I could tell.

Maybe some tits could have salvaged the "meh."

Wait. So after this whole China being changed to North Korea hubbub, the bad guys in the end are still the Russians?

Not really clear. Some Russian counter-terrorist troops were brought in to counter the Wolverines, but that plot line seems hastily cobbled together and essentially goes nowhere--except that Tom Cruise's son gets tagged with a tracking chip like is used on dogs.

I love reading reviews for this movie.

RED DAWN

It's a passable action film. Like the Total Recall remake it has elements and scenes that will remind you of the original but this film lacks the emotional kick that the original RD had. However, I did enjoy the speech at the end and the prisoners charging with the flag in the end.

Grade - B

I liked when they hid in a Subway and one of the Wolverines said something like "fill up my bag, sandwich artisan." They could have hid in a generic building, but this one happened to be a Subway.

There are also a lot of gun fights and bombs in plain site (making a fuck-load of noise) and next to North Korean FOBs, but apparently none of the North Koreans bother to lumber out of their FOBs to chase the Wolverines. They also do not conduct C4ISR but instead sit around making 1930s style Marxist murals.

The movie is sort of racist in how it portrays the North Koreans as idiots (who nonetheless invade the northwestern United States) incapable of conducting counter-insurgency operations without the help of some square jawed white people. The black mayor is a traitor and the one black guy that survives is tagged with a chip for animals.

Plus Josh Peck is ugly.

Totally. And incredibly unlikeable.

Agreed. He looked like a retard half the time.

The film was okay, an average time-waster.

Did this ever get released in China?

I don't remember seeing it here at all. So after changing it from China to the North Koreans, it still didn't get a release here because it was a small and shit movie.

Very bad movie but the action was good enough that made it a passable flick.

C+

It's not exactly a "good" movie, but I knew what to expect and I thought it was fairly entertaining.

6/10 (B-)

He was ugly fat. Now he's ugly skinny. And he looks so weird since he lost weight.

Red Dawn

Oh, it's very gung-ho. It's very "America, fuck yeah!". It's also completely inane and very badly executed. The camera work on this is just atrocious. It makes the action scenes very unmemorable because it all happens in such a flash. The concept of the film is good, though nowadays it doesn't really make sense. The 80s version must be better. I would love to see the film with an R-rating, blood, grit, logic, common sense, with a good director, and with adults leading the fight, not a bunch of kids. This film just makes no sense at all. What happened to the entire US Army? I heard something about nuclear bombs taking them all out ... I don't even know where to begin with that. And why would the North Koreans fly over little suburbia in Spokane, Seattle and start rounding people up from their houses? Wouldn't it make more sense to attack New York, Chicago, Washington DC etc? That's just the tip of the problems I saw. Considering this new breed of action-oriented teen flicks that has managed to infest popular culture these last few years, this film is probably one of the better ones. That's not really setting a high bar, though, since that list includes crap as such The Hunger Games, Divergent, Catching Fire etc.

Kudos for killing off the lead actor and his dad, though. That's very brave, especially in a PG-13 teen flick. Josh Hutcherson was awful as usual. That monster, Adrianne Palicki, was also terrible. In fact, they were all terrible in this, even Hemsworth.

D+

I was just about to say it was a harmless movie. Pop it in when you have nothing to do.

I mean it's crap but it's fun then I remembered Josh Peck and why I gave it a C in the first place.

He's awful. The writing is bad. etc

Peck cannot act, for sure, but I think he has a handsome charm about him.

Just an out-and-out awful movie, despite the huge boner potential of the young cast (Hutcherson, Hemsworth, Peckadiddle?)