He’s Lost the Game. Can He Beat the Koreans?

‘Red Dawn’ Remake Trades Soviets for North Koreans

Ron Phillips/Film District

From left, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson and Chris Hemsworth in “Red Dawn.”

The ideal viewer for “Red Dawn,” a slicked-up redo of the 1984 John Milius war flick about a Soviet invasion (with Cuban and Nicaraguan support) of the United States, has to be Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea. That’s because by changing the attackers to North Koreans, the filmmakers have paid him a great compliment by making his country a Hollywood villain. Thinking adults will find a North Korean invasion the stuff of wing-nut fantasies, which — with kids who just want to see guys shoot stuff up — is probably what the distributor is banking on. Everyone else interested may want to go with the campy flow, like a colleague who snorted of the invaders, “What, did they paddle over in canoes?”

Nah, they parachute in by the digital zillions, by the looks of the jumpers blooming in the sky shortly after the remake opens. The place is Spokane, Wash., where, before the invasion, Friday night lights shine on a high school quarterback, Matt (Josh Peck). Headstrong and independent, Matt blows the game (he isn’t a team player), ignoring sideline directives, but he has a pretty girlfriend, Erica (Isabel Lucas), to comfort him. He also has a dead mom; a supportive father (Brett Cullen); and an older brother to resent, learn from and finally embrace: the pretty, laconic Jed (Chris Hemsworth), who’s on leave from the Marines. Note: Jed is a team player.

Boys will be boys until forced to become a band of brothers, and so it is in “Red Dawn,” which, like some other war movies, is a male weepie with guns. The story lurches violently up and forward the morning after Matt’s football loss, with the North Koreans flooding in. As Spokane is painted red with Communist posters and patriot blood, Jed, Matt and some others escape. First, they freak out, and then they rise up. Invoking the examples of the Vietcong, mujahedeen and minutemen (in that order), Jed leads them to lock and load in a song of guerrilla guts and glory. Other parts of the country fall, too, leaving America free only from “Michigan to Montana, Alabama to Arizona.”

In his debut the director, Dan Bradley, a stunt coordinator with a long list of credits, handles the low-fi action well, which helps divert attention from the bargain-bin special effects, bad acting and politics. He revs engines and cuts loose bodies, adding energy to a movie that often sags, especially when the floundering youngsters open their mouths. Mr. Hemsworth, from “Thor,” is no Patrick Swayze (the first film’s peewee John Wayne), but he and Josh Hutcherson almost alone escape embarrassment. Not so the credited writers, Carl Ellsworth and Jeremy Passmore, and a script that originally featured Chinese invaders. After Chinese complaints, the occupier was changed to North Korea, which makes marginally more sense because China has, of course, already taken over, one sneaker at a time.

“Red Dawn” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). War violence, parental death and militarism.

Red Dawn

Opens on Wednesday nationwide.

Directed by Dan Bradley; written by Carl Ellsworth and Jeremy Passmore; director of photography, Mitchell Amundsen; edited by Richard Pearson; music by Ramin Djawadi; production design by Dominic Watkins; costumes by Catherine George; produced by Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson; released by Film District. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes.

WITH: Chris Hemsworth (Jed Eckert), Josh Peck (Matt Eckert), Adrianne Palicki (Toni), Josh Hutcherson (Robert), Connor Cruise (Daryl Jenkins), Isabel Lucas (Erica Martin), Edwin Hodge (Danny), Alyssa Diaz (Julie), Julian Alcaraz (Greg), Will Yun Lee (Captain Cho) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Tanner).