Red Dawn: A Quick Review

With the seemingly unending slew of 80's remakes constantly showing up at my local theater, I thought it might be a good idea to actually watch the original first. I heard rumors of a new Red Dawn being remade, and my brother had recently purchased the original, so I decided to check it out. Red Dawn is the story of a group of teenagers in an unidentified Midwestern town who start a guerrilla war against an invading, communist army. That's about the gist of it and if you want anything else I'd suggest reading the back of the DVD box, you'll find words like "unforgettable", "memorable", and "gripping", you know, those words that are on every single movie box ever produced. Anyways Red Dawn isn't that bad. Once you get past the ridiculousness of a group of high school seniors mounting successful guerrilla operations against an army whose leaders probably fought better equipped insurgents in Afghanistan, it kind of grows on you. I kind of got a little Cold War fever and found myself quietly chanting USA, USA every time they turned a communist convoy into swiss cheese. Some moments are cheesy, and others tend to be a little more moving than you'd expect, but it's really all thanks to Patrick Swayze. The best actor out of all of them, including Charlie Sheen, and I'm pretty sad he's dead right about now. Anyhoo, lots of gunfights and Americans using their second amendment rights on commies. Oh yeahh.

Look for the remake later this year I believe.

-Christopher O'Connell