Red Dawn

In this remake of the 1984 Cold War drama, the enemy is no longer Russian. Rather, North Koreans have invaded the States, and in the film’s opening scene we see their tanks rolling through the streets of Spokane. Jed (Chris Hemsworth) and his younger brother Matt (Josh Peck) organize a group of teens and move to the outskirts of town and begin to amass weapons at the family cottage. But when a traitor turns them in to the North Korean militants, they’re flushed from their safe house and have to hole up in a makeshift bunker. The North Koreans take hold in Spokane but the teens prove to be a proverbial thorn in their side, staging raids designed to peck away at their stranglehold on the city’s residents. Hemsworth and Peck do their best to bring out the valiant qualities of their respective characters, but the film’s flimsy plot and broad stroke politics are such deterrents, there’s little that can be done to salvage this misguided flick.