Red Dawn, worst movie premise of the decade?

  • '12

    When I was young the original movie Red Dawn came out, the premise being a continental invasion of the US by the USSR.  Even as a kid I thought that was so unlikely a premise as to make the movie un-enjoyable.  So now the re-make.  No USSR as the bogey man, can’t have China as the bad guy as you want their billion citizens to watch your movie.  So they pick North Korea as the bogyman, they, of the ilk who can’t launch a large missile with success, who would last about 6 weeks in a hot war in Korea manage to launch an invasion force across the Pacific to invade the US.

    Can anyone think of a worse, less plausible premise for a movie?


  • glittering vampires.

  • Moderator

    Mallery has a point…  :wink:

    GG


  • Did not watch the original and will not watch this one. What a waste of money(whose?).
    I would rather watch a vampire film!


  • I’m surprised a movie about a North Korean invasion of the U.S would get funded. It’s stupid writing. I guess it’s politically incorrect to have a U.N or Chinese invasion of the U.S.


  • @wittmann:

    Did not watch the original and will not watch this one. What a waste of money(whose?).
    I would rather watch a vampire film!

    I watched the original on television, I wasn’t impressed.


  • I would probably have watched the original if I had lived in the US, but not really a film to interest a European.
    Surely won’t be cheap to make, so wondered who thought it was worth remaking.
    I think you  can have too much money and no sense.


  • I’m a product of the '80s. � As such, Red Dawn is a sacred icon of my youth. � It didn’t matter how plausible the premise was. � What mattered was how FUN that movie was to a twelve year old boy. � It had every element a kid could want. � Soviets invading……kids bivouacing in the mountains with AK47’s and forming a resistance group. � No mushy love junk. � Gunfights, things blowing up, tanks, helicopter firing missiles…ALL GREAT STUFF!!! � Then Milton Bradley comes out with Fortress America just two years later…HOLY CRAP!!! �  We played that thing to death!! �  That movie became ingrained (in a good fun way) into my psyche and has been with me ever since. � Hardly a week goes by that I don’t think of the words “Red Dawn” or some tidbit from the movie itself. � I still hold my AK up at the range somtines and yell “WOLVERINES!!!” � I can easily picture the opening credits and hear the theme in my head as I type this. � Yeah, I LOVE Red Dawn. � I wouldn’t trade the memories of that movie and the synaptic connections they fostered for a hundred million dollars. �  I’m sure the new one does suck…it’s not the '80s anymore.

    WOLVERINES!!! �  � :-D

  • Liaison TripleA '11 '10

    Mal,

    I used to think the same thing

    But then I played homefront…

    The premise is that in the future all american arms shift to unmanned/robotic units, and invariably the U.S. is struck by a chinese propped North Korea - using EMP based weapons, during an American depression worse than the 30’s, coupled with a shift to isolationist government.

    Sure it’s a stretch… but everything is possible.

    Do you really think no one is ever going to try to take down america from the inside - or the outside, for the rest of TIME?

    Eventually something’s going to happen!


  • The worst premiere of the decade was Battleship. No question or doubt about that. Red Dawn looks like Gone with the wind compared with that.

  • '12

    Pacific War,  Yeah, good points.  I was about the same age, not so many guns by any stretch in Canada, we were more McGyverish by necessity.  But yes, no stupid love scenes and all the other  good stuff you mentioned.  I just wish they had a more believable premise.

    Garg,  That is a much more believable premise, I think I actually had that game but never played it.  It was a computer game or?  I used play AD&D so if you can set up a premise where there is magic, ok, so be it.  But then if the magic user doesn’t use his detect traps when he could have because they forgot they could use magic……and which results in a major change to the plot then it ruins it for me.

    Battleship, nearly about the same brutal premises and in one case worse.  I knew it had terrible ratings and poor box office performance but I thought it would be neat to see on the new sound system and existing big screen.  Brutal initial premise, almost killed it for me, faster than light communication by earth leads to alien invaders.  FTL comms aint remotely possible so F-.  Then having the one and only alien communications ships crash due to hitting a satellite, brutal again.  Further, the premise that the aliens only targeted things that showed hostile intent also brutal.  But other than that it was not bad other than the love angle thingee, but I knew the girlfriend would like that so ulterior motives exposed on that front…

  • '17 '16 '15 '14 '13 '12

    I watched Red Dawn like 3 months ago and I did find myself laughing during the scene when Robert goes toe to toe with that HIND thinking one round from that thing would have liquified him instantly…and Toni as well.  More then just her jacket stuffing would have flown out.  But I was 11 when it came out and was absolutly convinced that the Russians and Cubans could could invade South Park.  Is there a Blu-ray copy of that movie?  I’ve never seen one.  I’d love to watch it with the commentary.

  • Customizer

    Hmmm,

    @Imperious:

    The worst premiere of the decade was Battleship. No question or doubt about that. Red Dawn looks like Gone with the wind compared with that.

    IMHO Battleship was incredibly lame,…My vote for WORST MOVIE OF ALL TIME would have to be Red Tails. The movie Red Tails had a LOT of things going for it, but the writing in this re-make, not to mention the less than stellar C.G.(only) graphics, SUCKED the big one.

    I am proud to have a DVD of The Tuskeegie Airmen, but I think I would actually want to break any DVD copy of “R.T.” that I ever came across.

    Just my opinion.

    “Tall Paul”


  • I forgot to mention “Nick of Time”, where they kidnap some kid and force the father to commit murder and theft within strict time limits, all the while making it nearly impossible for him to even get where he needs to be to perform…and every time the guy to forces him is always in the room or area handing a gun. You ask yourself over an over again… Why the **** don’t you commit these crimes yourself?


  • Its like Homefront the movie.

    N. Korea uses a EMP bomb.

    N. Korea invades.

    A group of civilians fight.

  • '20 '18 '16 '13 '12

    Red Dawn may have sucked and I’m certain the remake will suck as well. But this is what we get in the theatres these days.

    When was the last time someone saw anything remotely original in the theatres? Movies cost so much to make these days and so few people go to see them that producers are only willing to put the money down on something they can guarantee an audience for. So franchises that were previously successful are as close to a sure thing as we can get these days. Why do you think we have Batman 3X2 and Sipderman 1x2 and Superman 2x2 and every conceivable marketable Marvel character coming out as a film?

    To be honest, I miss the 80’s. When directors were willing to try anything and fail at it. Put up millions of dollars on a stupid idea and see if it works. I mean some of our favourite movies probably looked completely hopeless before they hit the cutting room floor. Red Dawn was one that failed. But you know that The Terminator, Predator, Alien 3, could just have easily been met with the same fate. At least people were trying back then.

    Fight Club BOMBED at the box office and who didn’t see the premise and say “What a dumb-sounding movie.” Blade Runner did extremely poorly. on its release. But at the very least producers/directors were still trying new ideas. I don’t even need to mention Evil Dead or Donnie Darko.

    So hats off to the original Red Dawn for trying and failing. And shame on the new Red Dawn for being so uninventive that they couldn’t even think of a successful movie to remake.

    That said, Red Dawn did influence the equally goofy, but perhaps equally fun PC game Red Alert 2

    “According to NORAD we’ve got Soviet aircraft coming at us from all directions and ground troops pushing up through Mexico. I don’t know how they snuck in on us!”

  • '12

    Canuck, good insights into those movies.  Its far less risky to make a remake or a sequel.

    Blade Runner is one of my all time favourites.  It’s a classic in the philosophy of artificial intelligence world.  We spent an entire 2.5hr lecture on it in a 4th year course I took at university.  How would you actually know if a computer was sentient and not just tricking you like an early LIZA program did to some.  A great segue to the Turing Test which it was….

    I thought Matrix the first one…… was a novel premise and thought it was a pretty good movie.  As long as you believe there exists a perpetual motion machine… which of course is fiction.  Humans as a perpetual motion machine as the core premise did kind of kill it for me.  But by suspending that one basic tenant of physics it did become enjoyable.


  • North Korea just isn’t the same with out “wone-ly, oh so wone-ly” Kim Jong

  • Moderator

    Is the movie itself that bad? Action-wise, plot-wise? Premise, I get it… totally awful…

    GG


  • @Guerrilla:

    Is the movie itself that bad? Action-wise, plot-wise? Premise, I get it… totally awful…

    GG

    Well, im going to see it in a few hours.
    I will tell you if its good.

Suggested Topics

  • 71
  • 98
  • 4
  • 4
  • 9
  • 30
  • 6
  • 7
Axis & Allies Boardgaming Custom Painted Miniatures

12

Online

17.0k

Users

39.2k

Topics

1.7m

Posts