The 1984 movie Red Dawn had an all-star cast that included Charlie Sheen, Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell (Ponyboy!!) and Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing). I wasn’t around back then but I’m guessing it was pretty much the teen movie to go to.
I don’t always understand the necessity of remakes — especially if the plot isn’t changed all that much — but I just might go see the new Red Dawn just because they fast-forwarded the story to the present day. Instead of combating Soviet forces, a group of courageous teenagers are defending their town from an invasion of North Korean soldiers.
Granted, the likelihood of disorderly teenagers (who have probably only ever shot a gun in an iPhone game) saving a small town is slightly unbelievable. Still, I’m pretty sure if actor Chris Hemsworth is present North Korea would be like: “Damn, it’s Thor. Back out boys!”
The movie stars Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, who both have connections to The Hunger Games. The action flick hits theaters Nov. 21, 2012. Will you see it? Check out the original and new movie trailers below. I want to like the new version but I have to say, the original trailer is pretty enticing.
Red Dawn, 2012
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“Super 8″ had a big opening weekend, earning a total of $37 million dollars, reports CTV.
The action flick, directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg, started with $1 million in sneak-peek screenings Thursday, then earning a total of $38 million domestically.
“The movie was never conceived to be a blockbuster, tent-pole film opening to $60 or $70 million,” said Don Harris, head of distribution for Paramount.
The film bumped the previous No. 1 movie, “X-Men: First Class,” to second-place, earning $25 million over the weekend. The “X-Men” prequel raised a total to $98.9 million domestically. “The Hangover Part II” still came in strong with $18.5 million, making it the year’s top-grossing domestic release at $216.6 million.
Here’s a list of the top 5 weekend openings:
1. “Super 8,” $37 million ($6.7 million international).
2. “X-Men: First Class,” $25 million.
3. “The Hangover Part II,” $18.5 million ($38.3 million international).
4. “Kung Fu Panda 2,” $16.6 million ($56.5 million international).
5. “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” $10.8 million ($41.1 million international).
The new ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,’ which stars Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, opened big abroad this weekend.
The pirate-action flick will open in 4,155 North American theaters on Friday, already having debuted in 70 countries. Right now, the flick is scoring huge in the first 10 countries it opened in, posting $18.5M. This tops the $12.3M that ‘Pirates 3′ made.
So far, ‘Pirates 4′ has the biggest opening day ever in Russia with an industry record-breaker of RBL130M/$5M, beating the previous high set by ‘Twilight’ (RBL122M). France took in €2.1M/$3.1M, while very strong starts occurred in the UK, Italy, and Sweden.
Disney is looking for a big global first weekend, with 65% of the foreign markets opening before the U.S and Canada opens Friday. In total, ‘Pirates 4′ is debuting in more than 70 countries for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
People are crazy about ‘Pirates,’ and more specifically, about Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. I personally stopped watching after the second one, but this one sounds like it may be worth checking out. It’ll definitely perform well here, it’s a huge action blockbuster.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is going to be in a video game, and it’s going to be awesome.
Gellar will star alongside Robert Englund, Michael Rooker and Danny Trejo in ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops,’ fighting off zombies, of course.
Noted horror film director George Romero will lend his likeness to the game, inspired by his zombie film works. The new level, called “Call of the Dead,” will be included in the upcoming Escalation downloadable content pack.
“This is Treyarch’s tribute to the legendary George Romero, who truly defined the zombie genre and whose incredible work has been such an inspiration to our team,” said Black Ops director Dave Anthony. “It was an absolute honor to work with such an amazing and talented cast whose passion and energy brought their characters instantly to life. Fans are going to love this.”
Watch the video below to hear Gellar speak about the process. I’m so excited for her to come back into the spotlight, but I never anticipated this. It’s beyond my wildest dreams! (Yes, I’m fan-boying here, a little bit.)
The trailer for the game can be viewed here.
Action flick ‘Thor’ smashed the competition at the box office this weekend with a US$66 million opening. Pretty impressive!
The 3-D action Paramount picture, based on the Marvel comic, was by far the No. 1 movie, according to Sunday studio estimates. Australian actor Chris Hemsworth stars as the arrogant god of thunder who’s sent down to Earth as punishment.
The film also stars Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins and Kat Dennings. Wow – I didn’t even know there was such a cast in this movie.
In second place was a holdover from last week, the car-racing sequel “Fast Five” from Universal Pictures. It made $32.5 million for a total of nearly $140 million in just 10 days. That’s still impressive for a sequel.
It seems the box-office has been in a slump lately, so it’s good to see movies dominating again. I personally haven’t seen these movies, but I’ll trust others when they say they are worth the money.
‘Fast Five,’ the fifth installment of the ‘Fast and Furious’ movies, opened up this weekend with a whopping $83.6 million, reports the LA Times.
This is quite a surprise for a sequel film. The film marks the biggest opening weekend for any film this year by far, blowing away ‘Rio’s’ $39.2 debut last month. It’s also the best opening of any film in the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise, whose fourth film brought in $71 million on its premiere in 2009.
The other two new films that opened in wide release this weekend failed to compare in ticket sales. The cheesy teenfest ‘Prom’ only grossed a weak $5 million, meanwhile the animated sequel “Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil” opened with a soft $4.1 million, far less than the original.
‘Fast Five’ has helped pushed the box office out of its slump as well, with ticket sales up 52% this weekend as compared with the same weekend last year.
The studio spent at least $170 million to produce the movie, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss the film’s budget. A Universal spokeswoman said the actual cost was $125 million.
The studio made a number of changes to the “Fast” franchise with this film, switching its genre from a pure underground-racing movie to a heist film. Guess it paid off. The movie reunites stars from all four ‘Fast’ movies, including Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, and introduces newcomer Dwayne Johnson. ‘Fast Five’ also has a different international setting, taking place in Rio de Janeiro.
The movie also did well overseas too, opening in 14 foreign markets this weekend and collecting $45.3 million, bringing its international tally to $81.4 million. The film took the No. 1 spot in 10 countries.
Those who saw the film loved it, giving it an average grade of A, according to market research firm CinemaScore.
I honestly thought everyone was over this film, but apparently not, so expect many sequels to come. I stopped watching after the second.
The trailer for Cowboys and Aliens has been released, and it’s definitely not your average action flick.
The film deals with a posse of cowboys trying to fend off a spaceship that arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take over the Earth. It’s like Men In Black meets Wild Wild West.
For such a unique film premise, it certainly holds an all-star cast. The movie stars Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, and Harrison Ford, among others.
While many are making fun of the plot (it is pretty strange), I predict a box office smash with this one: special effects, an all-star cast, and Harrison Ford. I mean, come on.
View the trailer below and let us know what you think!
We all know the story: girl wears a red cape, is being followed by a wolf. She then visits her grandmother, her grandmother is the wolf. Or something like that. But all this goes out the window in Catherine Hardwicke’s adaptation of the classic “Red Riding Hood.”
Let’s start with the positive. Hardwicke, the director of the film who’s also directed for “Twilight,” delivers a visually stunning film. It captures great North American landscape, and the film’s forte definitely lies its cinematography and visual appeal. I absolutely commend her artistic decisions and direction she took within the story. I mean, contrasting Amanda Seyfried’s gentle blond hair and piercing blue eyes with that dramatic red cape. Heaven on screen. In fact, Seyfried is genuinely what saves the film from disaster itself – her understated acting is not only realistic but saves the movie from being cheesy.
But let’s move into what’s wrong with the film. Although the movie has its twists and turns that keep it interesting, the story itself suffers from an identity crisis. Set in a medieval village that is haunted by a werewolf, a young girl (Seyfried) falls for an orphaned woodcutter (Shiloh Fernandez), much to her family’s displeasure. So is the movie a thriller? A love story? A dark comedy? It dabbles in a bit of all three. There is a certain melodramatic love tension that occurs between the two young hotties, then there are brutal wolf attacks on the village people, and then there are clever allusions to the original fairytale. But it’s all too much. Pick on one theme, and make it great.
I saw this movie with my friend, and we left feeling neutral. It wasn’t a bad movie, in fact, we both said it could have been a lot of worse so we respected the fact that they made it interesting. But then again, the movie wasn’t great. They could have been much more shocking with how they changed the story, they could have made way more clever connections to the original, and besides Seyfried, the acting could have been better.
But for what the movie is, a teenage love-action story, the movie achieves its goal and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I give it a 2.5 out of 5, smack dab in the middle. Not great, not horrid.
