This is probably a much more thematically appropriate film for Memorial Day but I can't be bothered to keep up with these kinds of things.After a full-scale invasion by North Korea into the United States, a group of teens from outside Spokane, Washington, take to the hills to launch a guerrilla warfare campaign against the oppressors. Jed (Chris Hemsworth), the de facto leader, has to turn a bunch of suburban kids into elite warriors but must contend with his younger brother, Matt's (Josh Peck), lone-wolf mentality.
As a remake, this turns up the volume on violence and is structurally more pleasing than the 1984 original. That might simply be from having actors that are currently recognizable. I know who Josh Peck is because of the Internet, but I didn't grow up watching him on the Disney Channel. He stuck out as the off-key note for me.
I'm still of the opinion that this should never have been made as a drama. The premise is totally ludicrous, even more so now that the Cold War is over and we have no Big Bad as the enemy in the real world. North Korea couldn't invade a picnic basket, much less an industrialized nation on the scale of the United States. The original script called for the movie to have China as the invading force, which makes more sense in terms of manpower but none at all in strategy. China doesn't have to parachute troops in; they already own us financially. Case in point, this movie was shelved for two years to reshoot the villains so as not to offend the Chinese and lose a multi-billion dollar revenue stream.
You smell that? That's irony.
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