"Red Dawn"

This past Friday I watched the 2012 remake of “Red Dawn” on Netflix. I watched this movie without watching the original 1984 version that was directed by John Milius. The 93 minute long remake was directed by Dan Bradley and his directing talents fell short with this film. It was very entertaining with a decent cast and a lot of action. However, there was too much action and not enough focus on the characters themselves. Ten minutes into the film the North Korean military forces had already begun falling from the sky. It seemed like Bradley didn’t care about building up suspense or adding more dialogue between the characters.  As the Korean’s invaded the city Spokane, Washington a group of teenagers had managed to escape from the chaos to a cabin in the woods. Among the teenagers is a marine named Jed Eckert who was portrayed by Chris Hemsworth. Jed happened to come home on leave the night before the invasion after being away for about six years. With Jed is his younger brother Matt portrayed by Josh Peck who hadn’t spoken to his brother since he left. Their relationship developed from the beginning of the film to the end, which was one of the highlights. After understanding their situation Jed convinced the group very quickly to fight back and with his special skills and he trained all of them.  I thought it was overall an entertaining film at best and I liked the cast. However, there was too much material and not enough time for it. The editing was choppy and the transitions of time passing were very confusing. When Jed trained the group from start to finish you couldn’t tell how much time had passed and how fast they had learned how to be miniature soldiers.  I recommend this film to anyone who wants to waste some time and laugh a little.