Red Dawn (2012)
3/4
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Brett Cullen
Rated PG-13 for Sequences of Intense War Violence and Action, and for Language
The term "guilty pleasure" is thrown around every now and then by a few critics. Everyone knows what it means, but for a film critic, it can bear a note of shame. For example, "The Notebook" is a movie that many have derided as "corny" and "sappy." Both of which it is, since that comes with the territory of being based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. But I do like it, and although I have no compunctions about saying so, it can be a little awkward to admit in front of my guy friends who boast about how much they hate romances. Or a better example is "Tale of the Mummy," a virtually incoherent cheesefest with laughably bad special effects and terrible acting. But in spite of (or because of) that, I do like the movie.
"Red Dawn" fits this description, albeit barely. The premise is wafer thin, and wastes a number of interesting plot tangents, character development is nil, the film is edited to its bare bones, and first-time director Dan Bradley, who was Second-Unit Director under a number of Paul Greengrass's films has inherited his tutor's tendency to shake the camera frenetically. But still, I had fun. Just enough to recommend it. Slightly.
The story begins at, like many high school themed movies, a football game. Matt (Peck) is the quarterback who is desperately trying to win a football game but instead of going for the field goal like his coach is telling him to, he keeps trying (and failing) to run it so he can be the hero. Naturally, this fails, and he finds refuge with his girlfriend Erica (Lucas) and tension with his brother Jed (Hemsworth), who is a Marine home on leave. The next morning, they wake up to a loud rumbling. Matt and Jed run outside to see what's going on, and they find planes flying overhead and soldiers parachuting down from the sky. It's an invasion. After high-tailing it out of the city and watching their father be executed, Jed and his group of survivors decide to come together and raise hell for the invading North Koreans.
Watching this movie and how the characters planned and executed their guerrilla warfare against the invading forces, I couldn't help thinking that this is how terrorists feel and how they wage war on the modern world. It's a little disconcerting, to say the least. So is the sight of teenagers being gunned down, even in a movie like this.
The acting is adequate, although it may have been far worse based on how little there is. There's really no time for it. Bradley has, as I've said, edited the film down to its bare bones. It's made up of cliches, yes, but the meat of them occur off-screen (relatively important elements, such as how they suddenly are able to train with submachine guns despite no obvious contact with anyone who has them). This makes it twice as hard to sympathize with the characters, and as a result, it doesn't provoke more than a shrug when one dies (as some surely must). Of the cast, only Chris Hemsworth distinguishes himself. Hemsworth is a good actor ("Snow White and the Huntsman" excepting), and he has screen presence. The same cannot be said about Josh Peck, who is awful. Matt is a selfish dick, and Peck not only can't make him sympathetic, he can't utter a word of dialogue without making me cringe. No one else bears a mention.
That being said, the film has some exciting action sequences. I've always thought it would be cool to have a war movie set in a big city, and while this isn't the one I was hoping for, it's still pretty neat. Sadly, the camera shakes so much and it's so frantically edited that it's hard to know what is happening. This is one of those movies where you have to wait to the end to find out who died. But when Bradley keeps the camera relatively still (which he does from time to time), that's when the film takes off.
Look, this isn't a great movie. It's not even a good one. But it is what it is, and despite everything, I have to admit that I enjoyed myself. A little.
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Brett Cullen
Rated PG-13 for Sequences of Intense War Violence and Action, and for Language
The term "guilty pleasure" is thrown around every now and then by a few critics. Everyone knows what it means, but for a film critic, it can bear a note of shame. For example, "The Notebook" is a movie that many have derided as "corny" and "sappy." Both of which it is, since that comes with the territory of being based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. But I do like it, and although I have no compunctions about saying so, it can be a little awkward to admit in front of my guy friends who boast about how much they hate romances. Or a better example is "Tale of the Mummy," a virtually incoherent cheesefest with laughably bad special effects and terrible acting. But in spite of (or because of) that, I do like the movie.
"Red Dawn" fits this description, albeit barely. The premise is wafer thin, and wastes a number of interesting plot tangents, character development is nil, the film is edited to its bare bones, and first-time director Dan Bradley, who was Second-Unit Director under a number of Paul Greengrass's films has inherited his tutor's tendency to shake the camera frenetically. But still, I had fun. Just enough to recommend it. Slightly.
The story begins at, like many high school themed movies, a football game. Matt (Peck) is the quarterback who is desperately trying to win a football game but instead of going for the field goal like his coach is telling him to, he keeps trying (and failing) to run it so he can be the hero. Naturally, this fails, and he finds refuge with his girlfriend Erica (Lucas) and tension with his brother Jed (Hemsworth), who is a Marine home on leave. The next morning, they wake up to a loud rumbling. Matt and Jed run outside to see what's going on, and they find planes flying overhead and soldiers parachuting down from the sky. It's an invasion. After high-tailing it out of the city and watching their father be executed, Jed and his group of survivors decide to come together and raise hell for the invading North Koreans.
Watching this movie and how the characters planned and executed their guerrilla warfare against the invading forces, I couldn't help thinking that this is how terrorists feel and how they wage war on the modern world. It's a little disconcerting, to say the least. So is the sight of teenagers being gunned down, even in a movie like this.
The acting is adequate, although it may have been far worse based on how little there is. There's really no time for it. Bradley has, as I've said, edited the film down to its bare bones. It's made up of cliches, yes, but the meat of them occur off-screen (relatively important elements, such as how they suddenly are able to train with submachine guns despite no obvious contact with anyone who has them). This makes it twice as hard to sympathize with the characters, and as a result, it doesn't provoke more than a shrug when one dies (as some surely must). Of the cast, only Chris Hemsworth distinguishes himself. Hemsworth is a good actor ("Snow White and the Huntsman" excepting), and he has screen presence. The same cannot be said about Josh Peck, who is awful. Matt is a selfish dick, and Peck not only can't make him sympathetic, he can't utter a word of dialogue without making me cringe. No one else bears a mention.
That being said, the film has some exciting action sequences. I've always thought it would be cool to have a war movie set in a big city, and while this isn't the one I was hoping for, it's still pretty neat. Sadly, the camera shakes so much and it's so frantically edited that it's hard to know what is happening. This is one of those movies where you have to wait to the end to find out who died. But when Bradley keeps the camera relatively still (which he does from time to time), that's when the film takes off.
Look, this isn't a great movie. It's not even a good one. But it is what it is, and despite everything, I have to admit that I enjoyed myself. A little.
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