Pauls Valley, Oklahoma — One of the absolute truths people of any nation can count on is a certain segment will always fear what the guys who don’t like us will do if they get mad enough. Being the historically meddlesome kids we are, the United States has no shortage of enemies who would prefer we either did not exist or just leave them the heck alone. The original movie with this title was perfect for those of us old enough to at least remember paranoia from part of the cold war, but with that political climate slightly different, we needed someone to slap in there in order to justify a remake. Thankfully for those wishing for blockbuster gluttony, communism is still sort of out there and though fearing it has become no more than a corny pastime, it works at least well enough for a couple hours of giggles. “Red Dawn,” while not 100 percent an impossible transition to reality, is nothing more than a harmless popcorn flick and will entertain with properly lowered expectations. Set in Spokane Washington, the story begins as US Marine Jed Eckhert (Chris Hemsworth) returns to his hometown after serving his latest tour overseas. Things aren’t so good with the family who has not seen much of him since he bailed after his mother passed, the biggest rift apparent with his high school football star of a younger brother Matt Eckhert (Josh Peck). Unfortunately there’s not much time to smoothly patch up the relationship as they quickly discover the country is being invaded and taken over by North Korea. As they attempt to evade their foreign captors, including the enemy leader Captain Cho (Will Yun Lee), they are forced to decide if their home is worth fighting for and what it means to sacrifice for the group as a whole. The pace is pretty decent even if there seems to be pretty big gaps in the story outside of the one skirmish after another and as long as you don’t want to know what’s going on with the bigger picture it’s not too hard to follow. However, for all the information one has to juggle with a project of this magnitude, it is at least worth checking out for those desperate for a classic action flick. I wouldn’t recommend this so much for the youngest kids, but those teenage and up might actually find it tame set up next to the latest Call of Duty or “Halo 4.” The characters are decently chosen for their respective age groups and even the heroes one may not like are easy enough to root for by the time it is over. I suppose the only thing that would have made it even better is if Thor had shown up and hammered the bad guys to their makers. As a result, I’d say “Red Dawn” deserves three out of five Jong-Uns.
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Poster for "Red Dawn," now in theaters. United Artists, FilmDistrict.
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