Red Dawn (2012)
Directed by Dan Bradley
A city in Washington state awakens to the surreal sight of foreign paratroopers dropping from the sky—shockingly, the U.S. has been invaded and their hometown is the initial target. Quickly and without warning, the citizens find themselves prisoners and their town under enemy occupation. Determined to fight back, a group of young patriots seek refuge in the surrounding woods, training and reorganizing themselves into a guerrilla group of fighters.
3 connections found
View:
3 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Red Dawn to
Hemsworth's Marine leads a resistance force that includes (of course) the town's star high school quarterback (the Disney Channel's Josh Peck), a girl who has the hots for Jed (Adrianne Palicki of "Friday Night Lights"), a geek (Josh Hutcherson of "The Hunger Games"), the head cheerleader (Isabel Lucas) and the mayor's son (that would be Connor Cruise, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's kid), who is appalled to find his father cooperating with the invaders.
The best segments of the film occur early, as the setting is established with a dose of Friday Night Lights normalcy followed by an invasion that recalls Independence Day .
Adrianne Palicki (“Friday Night Lights”) has the Grey part, Josh Hutcherson (“The Hunger Games”) the C. Thomas Howell role; in the Sheen role, Josh Peck (“The Wackness”) is Jed’s rebellious kid brother Matt, while blond Aussie Isabel Lucas has the Thompson role of cheerleader Erica.
Since her outstanding work on TV's "Friday Night Lights," Adrianne Palicki (2010's " Legion ") has been someone to watch out for, and she makes Toni a strong, likable, captivating heroine.
It’s Friday Night Lights territory, but without good writing or acting.
What young actor with an uncertain future is going to turn down a remake of a Patrick Swayze movie that did well at the box office even before Dirty Dancing? (Trivia alert: Jennifer Grey was in the original Red Dawn as well.)
It brought together Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey three years before Dirty Dancing.
The resulting movie was not very good, but left an impression on impressionable minds and featured a veritable Brat Pack of 1980s-era actors: the late Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey, Swayze’s soon-to-be “Dirty Dancing” dance partner.
Back when John Milius was the director and the Russians were the aggressors, Swayze’s fellow resistance fighters included Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell and a pre- Dirty Dancing Jennifer Grey.
Even so, a modestly realistic assault on Washington, D.C., trumps a wholly unrealistic invasion of the United States by North Korea, as posited by last year’s Red Dawn and 2011’s Homefront.