Some Decent Action Scenes Can't Save This Needless Remake: Our Review of "Red Dawn" (2012)

Directed By: Dan Bradley 

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense war violence and action, and for language

Run Time: 1 hour, 54 minutes

Synopsis: U.S. Marine Jed Eckert (Hemsworth) is home on leave, visiting his father and younger brother, Matt (Peck), when North Korean soldiers suddenly invade their hometown. Jed and Matt flee to the woods, form a rebellion with a group of friends they saved, call themselves Wolverines after their high school mascot, and attempt to save their town. A remake of the 1984 original.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! The other night Sarah and I joined the crowds looking to see a movie the night before Thanksgiving, where we joined a relatively full crowd in seeing the new Red Dawn remake starring Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck and Josh Hutcherson. Red Dawn, much like The Cabin in the Woods, was originally filmed in 2009 starring a pre-Thor Hemsworth, but shelved thanks to MGM’s bankruptcy problems and is just now getting released in 2012.

Sarah, you haven’t seen the original 1984 version starring Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and other notable 80’s actors, correct?

Sarah: That is correct. I didn’t even know Swayze and Sheen were in it.

A: Then I can tell you that the new version is relatively faithful to the original. Most of the character names are exactly the same…

S: What about the story? I know the original version had the Russians as the invading enemy and the new one changed it to North Korea.

A: That’s one of the two big differences for sure. The two differences are that A.) they’ve moved the setting from Colorado to Spokane, Washington, and B.) they’ve changed the villains from the Russians to the North Koreans.

Now, when they originally filmed the movie in 2009 the bad guys were actually the Chinese…

Chris Hemsworth headlines the cast of young up-and-comers in the remake of 1984's Red Dawn. Ironically, he filmed this in 2009 before hitting it big in 2011's Thor.

Check Out The Red-Band Trailer for 2013's "Evil Dead" Remake!

Andrew: Hello readers! Ok, so Sarah doesn't know that I'm posting this so let's keep it a little secret between all of us, but the red-band trailer for next spring's The Evil Dead remake has officially hit the internet! (I say officially because a leaked version that was taken by a cell phone camera at the New York Comic Con hit earlier this month but was taken down.)

A remake of Sam Raimi's 1981 classic is simply titled Evil Dead this time around, I was skeptical when I heard they were making this, but now that I've seen this footage I can admit I'm 100% in. It doesn't hurt that Raimi is both producing and was involved with the script, and that while Bruce Campbell's Ash is nowhere to be found in the remake, Campbell is still involved as a producer. (Some people might be worried about Diablo Cody's involvement with the script as well, but I personally love Juno and enjoyed Young Adult so I'm cool with it.)

Again, this is the red-band trailer so there is some language, DEFINITELY some bloody goodness that I hope will satiate horror fans like myself, and a very obvious homage to the original involving a possessed tree. Check it out and let me know what y'all think! (The trailer will ask you to verify your age before letting you watch it.)



Evil Dead is slated to be released April 12, 2003. It stars Jane Levy of ABC's Suburgatory and is directed by Fede Alvarez, a Uruguayan director best known for a short film called Panic Attack!

Courtesy: IGN

Wholly Unnecessary Unless You Love Kate Beckinsale: Our Review of "Total Recall" (2012)

Directed By: Len Wiseman (Underworld) 

Starring: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston

Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, some sexual content, brief nudity, and language

Run Time: 1 hour, 58 minutes

Synopsis: Doug Quaid (Farrell) is a factory worker who wishes for a better life for him and his wife, Lori (Beckinsale). After a recurring dream where he's a spy working with another woman (Biel), he goes against the advice of a friend and visits Rekall - a business that can give you false memories for entertainment. Before he can get  a spy memory implanted in him, all hell breaks loose as it appears he truly is a spy, his wife turns into an intelligence operative who tries to kill him, and he joins forces with his dream girl. But what is real and what is Rekall?

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! Tonight Sarah and I hit the theatre to catch Len Wiseman’s remake of the classic 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film Total Recall. This time around we get Colin Farrell in Arnold’s lead role of Doug Quaid; Kate Beckinsale as Lori, Quaid’s wife (or is she) originally played by Sharon Stone; and Jessica Biel as Melina, a woman who may or may not know who Quaid really is.

Sarah, this was the main film we previewed this week, and I’m the only one of us who has seen the original version directed by Paul Verhoeven, so I have some bit of reference to go off of here. But you haven’t seen the original so you kind of went into this fresh. So I want to get your take on what it was like going in having no knowledge of it other than what you’ve seen in promotions. (FAIR WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN EITHER VERSION)

Sarah: I went into it not having super high expectations but I was kind of excited to see it because it seemed like a cool action flick. I was thinking it was going to be a cerebral thriller, not knowing what was real and what was fake. It was definitely what you said it would be in the preview – a gun-slinger movie. It was very action-packed. There was actually very little of the movie that was NOT action-packed. Which for a Len Wiseman movie you come to expect.