REVIEW OF RED DAWN

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HHoSLeZMVs&w=560&h=315]

ABOUT THE MOVIE:

Marine Jed Eckhert (Chris Hemsworth) returns on leave to his hometown of Spokane, Washington, where he reunites with his father, Spokane Police Sergeant Tom Eckhert (Brett Cullen) and his brother, football player Matt Eckhert (Josh Peck), who resents Jed for leaving on duty after their mother died and staying abroad for six years.

That night, the town experiences a mysterious power outage, and Tom leaves to investigate. The following day, Jed and Matt are surprised to find paratroopers from North Korea invading their town. Matt witnesses an F-16 take out a Korean cargo plane dropping paratroops just as he and Jed leave in a pick-up truck. They meet Tom, who tells them to go to their cabin in the woods while he helps the townspeople. Jed and Matt attempt to rescue Matt's girlfriend, Erica Martin (Isabel Lucas), but she is captured by North Korean soldiers, though they are able to rescue other teenagers, including Robert Morris (Josh Hutcherson), Daryl Jenkins (Connor Cruise) and Pete (Steve Lenz). They go to the Eckhert's cabin, where Jed tells everyone to find supplies. He also instructs Robert to try and pick up any kind of radio or television frequency.

Having taken a pistol without anyone knowing from the Eckert's camper earlier, Pete sees a van approaching and opens fire without knowing if there are really soldiers inside. When he learns they were fellow townspeople Toni Walsh (Adrianne Palicki), Julie Goodyear (Alyssa Diaz), Greg Goodyear (Julian Alcaraz), and Danny Smith (Edwin Hodge), Jed forces Pete to hand over the pistol, as he's not fit to use it. The following morning, the group learn that Pete has stolen their supplies and left. To guarantee his survival, he has also surrendered to the North Korean troops and revealed the cabin's location to their commander, Captain Cho (Will Yun Lee), who attacks the cabin with his men. The group escapes and hides in the woods, and in order to draw them out, Cho brings Tom Eckhert and Daryl's father, Mayor Jenkins (Michael Beach) to try and convince them to surrender. When Tom tells the kids to wage a guerilla war -and kill Cho - the Captain executes Tom while the teenagers watch from a secure location.

When Jed announces that he intends to fight for freedom, the others agree to join him and decide to call themselves "The Wolverines" after the school mascot. The Wolverines steal weapons from the North Koreans soldiers and Jed teaches them how to use them. They begin to attack military checkpoints, stealing more weaponry and leaving behind their symbol, which begins to inspire the people. During one of these attacks, the Wolverines see Pete in an American turncoat uniform and helping the North Koreans. Matt kills him along with several other North Koreans as revenge for turning on them.

During a planned attack at a rally between Cho, American turncoats and Russian associates who have funded the invasion, Matt nearly jeopardizes the mission in order to rescue Erica from a bus transporting prisoners. During the rescue, Greg is killed trying to help Matt.

Cho later bombards the woods in order to destroy the Wolverines' base of operations, killing Julie and Danny in the process. The others escape and encounter United States Marine Corps Sergeant Major Andrew Tanner (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and two of his men, Smith (Kenneth Choi) and Hodges (Matt Gerald), from the USMC Alpha Company, who reveal that the suitcase that Cho carries all the time contains an EMP-resistant radio telephone that allows the North Koreans to keep in contact with other occupation forces within the EMP area. After speaking with Tanner and identifying themselves, the Wolverines agree to help Tanner steal it.

They attack the police station, where Cho and his men are stationed. Jed fights Cho in Tom's old office and eventually kills him, while Matt steals the suitcase, but Hodges is killed in the process. They return to their new hideout and celebrate, but are suddenly ambushed by North Korean troopers that kill Jed. After escaping, the Wolverines learn that, during the fight at the police station, Daryl was stabbed, and the knife contained a tracking device that led the troopers to them. Since there is no way to remove the device, Daryl urges the Wolverines to escape and stays behind, leading the incoming troopers away and ready to face certain death.

Tanner leaves with the suitcase in a helicopter, while the Wolverines decide to stay and continue to fight. Now led by Matt, they recruit more people to join their group by raiding the prisoner camps, and continue their efforts to repel the invasion.

WHAT IS GOOD/BAD ABOUT THE MOVIE:

The film has the structural integrity of a house after a category five tornado. The pacing is egregiously mishandled, which is more than noticeable when you’re making a movie about a bunch of high school students who become a team of fully trained guerilla fighters seemingly overnight (though of course there is the standard predictable training montage). Because the group, once again nicknamed The Wolverines, don’t get a legitimate mission to act on until the third act, most of the movie is spent watching characters just move from place to place trying to undermine the invading force’s operation. The whole thing is so out of whack that by the time the credits started to roll I said to myself, “Wait, that was it?” even though I was very happy with the opportunity to leave the theater.

I will throw Red Dawn some credit for its lead performances. Continuing his path to become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Hemsworth gives a strong turn stepping into Patrick Swayze’s boots as Jed Eckert, the trained Marine who is tasked with organizing and militarizing his young platoon. He and Josh Peck, who play’s Jed’s younger brother Matt, have strong sibling chemistry, and Peck holds his own as well, particularly in scenes where he is conflicted in his loyalty to the Wolverines and his desperation to free his girlfriend (Isabel Lucas) from a prisoner camp. Josh Hutcherson and Connor Cruise play easily the most one-dimensional characters in the main cast, each one given a single conflict that they must overcome by the end of the runtime, but they do what they can.

OVERALL GRADE:

C-