Those of you of a certain generation may recall a slightly cheesy but quite fun film from 1984 called Red Dawn. It dealt with a Soviet invasion of the US and followed the story of a bunch of teenagers, called the 'Wolverines' after their school football team, who fought back against the invaders. Whilst not Oscar wining material it is a lot better than it has any reason to be...
Fast forward nearly thirty years and a remake (or revision) of the original is to be released in America this November. This version of the film has apparently been sat around since 2010 but with MGM in financial difficulty it was shelved until a deal was struck with an independent film company to release it.
Since initial filming the film's "bad guys" have been re-badged. Initially the invaders were the Chinese, but following adverse reaction in China and considering the potential loss of earnings from the Chinese box office, the Chinese were converted into North Koreans in post-production through some minimal re-shoots and CGI. Quite how realistic this makes the film is up to debate but I guess realism was never top of the filmaker's agenda.
Whatever, if it is half as good as the first it should still be worth watching for some light entertainment...
Thanks for this, I've been meaning to check out this trailer for ages.
ReplyDeleteLove the "snow globe" effect - a nice variation on the Jurassic Park "glass of water" that's become a movie cliché.
Good cast, but might be a bit too gung-ho for my tastes ;)
I remember the original quite well. It may be a bit on the "cheesy" side by today's standards but back then, to a thirteen year old, it was pretty good stuff. I wonder what I would think of the movie today. As for the new one, I might give it a go once it comes out on video. Thanks for the heads-up!
ReplyDeleteNorth Korea invades America? Okay, it's Sci-Fi. Think they should have stuck with the Chinese. OTOH perhaps it still is the Chinese using plausibly deniable North Korean forces? Oh the conspiracy starts.
ReplyDeleteThere's actually a video game that came out a couple of years ago with the same premise. In that one, North Korea somehow conquers South Korea and - hold on your pants for this one, folks - China.
ReplyDeleteApparently the movie and game industries seem to think North Korea is a sleeping giant or something, lol.
The original Red Dawn is still awesome. WOLVERINES!