After years of delays thanks to the prior financial woes over at MGM, an unlikely group of heroes will fight back against its foreign invaders (and the threat of remaining forever on the shelf) in Red Dawn, the remake of the 1984 flick (starring Patrick Swayze), which just got its first trailer.
The original Red Dawn is certainly no classic; finding Russian and Cuban forces invading The United States with a small group of teens launching a counterattack, though that’s not to say we need a revival. In our update, it’s North Korea taking the place of communists who have invaded courtesy of some new communication jamming technology (or something like that). Shit blows up. That much is clear.
Leading the fight this round are Chris Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Josh Peck, Adrianne Palicki and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, with Hemsworth’s Jed Eckert being bestowed with some Air Force experience (you know, just because). The good news for MGM and Open Road Films is that the starpower of Hemsworth, Hutcherson and even Morgan have risen significantly since Red Dawn was filmed in 2009. Pretty much, whatever this film makes upon its release, you can be sure it would have been much less a few years ago.
Red Dawn may remind you of another shelved Hemsworth-MGM project called The Cabin in the Woods and we all saw how fantastically that turned out (coincidently, in the trailer his character is advised to “get to the cabin.”) However, there is no Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard script to be found in this effort, just as lot of overly familiar, “rah rah, don’t f*ck with America” patriotism.
As to not sound overly harsh, I will say if the action is slick and the talented performers bring any kind of zest to their performances, this remake could be a diverting, B-movie lark. Avoiding heavy-handed messages about freedom and unity is going to be the one big thing Red Dawn needs to avoid.
Get your bunkers ready, Red Dawn will land on North American soil November 21.
(Source: The Playlist)