Review of Red Dawn (1984) by Seth S — 31 Jan 2013

Red Dawn is a cult classic that appeals strongly to those who grew up in the 80s. But watching it nowadays left me really indifferent. The movie is basically depressing/forced drama, followed by a goofy action scene, followed by another overly serious drama scene, followed by yet another preposterous action scene, etc. etc. Nothing in this movie is particularly good.

Russian invaders take over small town USA. A group of teens band together and head up into the mountains. With limited provisions and no training, these teens are able to put up an inexplicably strong fight against the Russian Spetsnaz.

Yes, a couple of untrained teenagers slaughtering a whole army of Russians. It's really dumb when you think about it. These kids might be effective for a few attacks, but they have prolonged success. Ridiculous situations include two people taking down an entire Russian base, and our heros' somehow digging covered foxholes and cinematically popping out of the ground to mow down the enemy. Dumb, I know.

The cast doesn't offer much improvement over the story and action. Patrick Swayze probably gives the best performance of the movie. He isn't bad as Jed, but nothing special. Turning in much worse performances are Charlie Sheen as Matt, Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey as Erica and Toni (two completely random and pointless characters), and C. Thomas Howell as Robert. Powers Boothe does manage to give a mildly entertaining performance as Col. Andy Tanner.

Really there isn't much good to say about this movie. When were not given these half-baked action scenes, whe have to sit through extended scenes of dry, over-serious drama. Maybe one or two smiles are cracked throughout the whole movie. The one good thing I can say about this movie is that it ushered in the PG-13 rating. But being the first PG-13 rated movie is a rather small consolation prize for the drab and daft movie that this is.

"In the early days of World War 3, guerillas - mostly children - placed the names of their lost upon this rock. They fought here alone and gave up their lives, so that this nation should not perish from the earth." 4/10.