Movie Breakdown: Red Dawn

People are doing traditional-style reviews all over the web, so we decided to try something different.  In each “breakdown” we’ll take a look at what a film’s marketing led us to believe, how the movie actually played, and then what we learned from it all.  Read on!

The Impression:

Red Dawn gets put on the “let’s remake it with bigger explosions” train.  Chris Hemsworth stars.

The Reality:

The new Red Dawn is not a worthy remake.  The original is a film that tried to say so many different things, and the new version has no interest in having an opinion on anything.  With that being said, I thought it was solid.  Yes, the movie is thoroughly dumb, but it has a quick pace, plenty of heroic actions, and a small handful of inspired changes that kept me entertained.  If you can turn your brain off and forget the fact that it’s a remake, Red Dawn is serviceable big screen action.

The Lesson:

When the plan is to alter the core of an original work, just change the title and don’t bother calling it a remake.