“Red Dawn” goodies get you giddy for a Chinese occupation

On KVNU’s Movie Show Friday night, Andy and Dan delivered a brief preview of the biggest movies that will come to theaters (unless the movies, you know, make you think, in that case Westates won’t bring them to Logan) in 2010.

One of the movies they mentioned, the remake of “Red Dawn,” reminded me to start doing a little Googling to find morsels of information about the updating of the 1984 Cold War thriller that made every teenage boy in America shout out in pride, “Wolverines!!!!!”

Here’s what I found:

and…

As you can tell, unlike the 1984 original, which featured the Commie Russians invading the U.S., the update will have the Chinese as the antagonists.

Here is a video that someone posted on YouTube from the outdoor set in Detroit. It shows a lot cool posters and imagery that, presumably, will be seen in the movie.

Red Dawn 2010

The remake doesn’t have any super major name stars as far as I can gather, but that might be OK for a film like this.

The new Red Dawn is scheduled for a November 24 release.

Patrick Swayze was a Lover AND a Fighter

Patrick Swayze died yesterday at age 57 from pancreatic cancer, something his family, fans and the public have kind of expected since he was diagnosed with the disease in March of 2008. I’m not going to sit her and mince words and say Swayze was a great actor. He wasn’t. But Swayze was talented and was a fantastic entertainer. He was a big fixture in cinema during my high school days and proved that dudes can kick ass and be a cultured lady-killer in the same breath.

My favorite Patrick Swayze films are as follows:

Point Break: “You’re going dooooown, Bodhi!”

Roadhouse: From this movie I learned one of life’s valuable lessons, as taught by Swayze’s character in the film, Dalton: “Take the biggest guy in the world, shatter his knee and he’ll drop like a stone.”

Youngblood: This is the movie where Patrick Swayze taught Rob Lowe how to not be a pretty boy wuss. As a side note, Rob Lowe and Cynthia Gibb’s love scene by the fire was not a good thing for a 15 year-old boy to see. And by not a good thing, I mean totally awesome.

Red Dawn: Swayze was the leader of the Wolverines and how could anyone not growing up in the 1980s not love this movie? This came out in 1984 and was the first PG-13 movie released in theaters. I should also point out Red Dawn’s release during the USA vs. Soviet Union nuclear war fears made this movie oh so relevant. I was sure I’d have to hightail it with my weapons to the mountains and live off the land.

Ghost: I think I took every girl I dated my junior year in high school to this movie. That pottery wheel scene with Demi Moore is one for the ages, and this movie was probably Swayze’s best acting.

Are you surprised Dirty Dancing isn’t on my list? Don’t be. That movie sucks. However, there is one good thing that came out of Dirty Dancing and I leave it for your viewing pleasure below.

Red Dawn(s) Again

As a 10-year-old kid in the middle of the Cold War circa 1984, Red Dawn freaked me the crap out. Hollywood’s first wide-release PG-13 movie, Red Dawn earned it’s 13 with enough surprisingly violent and grounded in enough realism to make it both bleak and frightening. Red Dawn also has the honor of being the film that originally coined the now legendary “Wolveriiiiiiiiines!”– a war cry I shout out every time I think about having to enter a Wal-Mart.

While a bit outdated in today’s geopolitical/technological climate, Red Dawn is still an 80′s classic, packing enough of an uncomfortable, existential and brutal punch to the soft parts that I still have a hard time watching it. In fact, I credit Red Dawn with single-handedly turning me into a grumpy, lifelong pessimist.

Thanks a lot.

Now, 25 years later, Red Dawn is being remade. While the details have been in the works for a while and Red Dawn: The Reboot is still in development, you’ll probably be seeing High School insurgents an the foreign invaders who fear them duke it out on screens in 2010. Hint: this time, while Russia is still involved, they’ll be offered up in a supporting role to China.

In the mean time, the script is almost completely finalized and a recent draft (dated March 20) has surfaced at Latino Review, giving a pretty good glimpse of what to expect.  Check it out here.

For a Red Dawn refresher via the original’s trailer, wala: