The “Red Dawn” remake is TERRIBLE…as are the fan reactions!
As you may have heard, the remake of the 1984 cult classic “Red Dawn” is a terrible film. Watching it isn’t worth the time and trouble it takes, and it makes me cry for the earth’s resources that were wasted in constructing this bomb. It’s currently playing in theaters across America, where name recognition alone may hoodwink innocent eyeballs into paying money to watch this confused mess.
Apart from pathetic plot points that made me roll my eyes countless times during the screening, the execution of this thing is one of the saddest Hollywood remakes in years.
In the original film, the premise was that a portion of America had been invaded by the Soviets. That original film totally captured the anti-Soviet paranoia that engulfed this country at that time. Having been a high school student in the 80s when the original film was released, I could just barely buy into the far-fetched but barely plausible framework for the film. (In the early 90s, I gave my VHS copy to a friend who wanted it for the enduring schlock value of the thing)
In Red Dawn (2012) the villians were changed from Chinese to North Korean during post-production, allegedly so that the actual Chinese wouldn’t be upset (and perhaps call in our massive loans).
How bad is this film? The only thing that could have saved it would have been to have had the film’s star Chris Hemsworth (a.k.a. Thor in “Thor” and “The Avengers”) –spend some (or even most) of this movie either shirtless or maybe even unclothed. I don’t want to hurt his feelings, but I suspect even Hemsworth realizes that he isn’t hired so much for his ability to act, he’s hired to be eye candy. Wrapped up eye candy does no one any good. (This is one of the many, many reasons why there need to be many more female directors in charge of mainstream Hollywood films!)
As it is, Hemsworth didn’t even show up for the world premiere of his film at Fantastic Fest in September.
The best things to come out of this Red Dawn remake are the kick-ass Fantastic Fest closing night theme party (which was was tied to the movie) and the series of entertaining public reactions to this film.
Given how terrible the film is, I was surprised to see the strong reactions from the public, including Tea Party fanboys (and fangirls) responding to the film, along with some seriously misguided anti-asian reactions to the film.
Here are some pictures from the world premiere of the film. The rest of the set is here.
Even more exciting: pictures from the Red Dawn themed Fantastic Fest closing night party! Note the free head-shaves and REAL prison-tats! More party pictures here:
