The question isn't whether its a good remake. The question is why do a remake to begin with? I mean, by definition, its already been done. Move on, find something new. The first one was campy and absurd, but like most people of my generation I saw it as a land mark film, just like "The Day After". It shaped our world as we grew up during the Cold War, Quick test. Go into a bar full of thirty and forty somethings and yell "Wolverines!". I guarantee everyone will know what you are talking about. They may look at you funny, but they will understand.

Now? What's the point? It was absurd to imagine that the US could ever be succsesfully invaded even during the Cold War, but we actually kind of welcomed the idea as at least we could shoot back rather than passively waiting for the missles to fall. It was an empowering flick in the '80s. Now its its just silly. Seriously, a Chinese invasion? What are they going to do? Swim? The idea of Muslims taking over is even more absurd. Neither has the resonance of the original as without the Cold War context, it really makes no sense. You can remake "True Grit" and it works as its a timeless story about vengance and heroism. "Red Dawn" belongs to a particular time and place. If you weren't there, you don't get it. Its like Nena's "99 Luft Balloons" or Jesus Jones' "Right Here Right Now". You were either a child of the Cold War or you weren't. If you were, those songs and that movie have serious memories attached to them. If you weren't, they are just campy '80s schlock. Don't bother trying to remake them as they are the product of a particular time and place and depend on a worldview shaped by that time and place to give them meaning. Minus that? Its just a B movie.

Rant over.
FQ13
PS Here's a bonus.

And my favorite (I swear I saw officers cry when the wall came down and I was crying with them. That was a moment I will remember if I live to see 100), everyone in DC was singing this thing. It was a brief high before reality set in, but sweet lord, being in DC and wearing the uniform in '89-90? It was a magical time, the failed coup against Gorby, the Wall coming down, democracy in Eastern Europe, the dissolution of the USSR. Lord, it was like 50 years of history were gone and we were looking at a whole new world. I mean seriously, we were trained for four years to fight an NBC war against an enemy that just dissolved in a puff of smoke. There aren't words to describe what that felt like. It must have been like what VE day felt like for the Brits. Anyway, Jesus Jones had it right. A great song that captured an amazing moment. But just like Red Dawn, it doesn't stand the test of time. It was about a moment. "Right here, Right Now" indeed. You were there or you weren't.