Remakes are all too common in Hollywood. Usually, they’re remakes of action movies, ones that can be easily reworked into major summer blockbusters (i.e., “The Karate Kid”, “Clash Of the Titans”) that reflect the more contemporary styles of filmmaking (in the above two examples, one difference is they’re much darker than their origin source).

Sometimes, though, Hollywood creates a remake that just doesn’t make sense, simply because there was no demand or necessity to make it. “Red Dawn” fits squarely in that category, failing on every level of filmmaking, especially those involving fun and riveting action scenes.

America is invaded by (of all places) North Korea. For unknown reasons, the North Koreans decide to attack  Spokane, Washington. Here, several youngsters band together to stop the invading force, including Jed Eckhert (Chris Hemsworth), a Marine, and his younger brother, Matt Eckhert (Josh Peck). This little band of heroes, called the Wolverines, fight the opposing force and hope to take back their country.

“Red Dawn” is such a bad movie it staggers the imagination. I’ve had diseases that were more fun this flick. God knows how this was made, let alone released into 2600 theaters. The only interesting thing about the film is its production history; originally made by MGM in 2009, that company went bankrupt and left the film in limbo for 3 years (the same situation occurred for “The Cabin In The Woods”). This is why 2012 A-listers like Josh Hutcherson (Peeta in “The Hunger Games”) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor in “Thor” and “The Avengers”) are in it, giving the film unintentional star power. These guys are actually OK in their roles, but one actor ruins the entire movie for everybody.

I never caught the widespread love for “Drake & Josh”, so I can’t comment on his performance in that show. However, here Josh Peck gives one of the worst performances committed to film since Ben Affleck in “Gigli” and the entire cast of “Troll 2”. To boot, he’s asked to become a loveable lead by the end of the movie, and he just plays it all wrong, making me want to punch our protagonist instead of cheer him on. I guess there’s a reason Peck hasn’t been hired for any movies (sans the last 2 “Ice Age” movies) since this garbage was filmed.

Shaky cam is a term used for scenes that use the camera shaking around incessantly to add intensity. The “Bourne” movies and “The Hunger Games” are big culprits of this, and “Red Dawn” outdoes all of them in its blatant mishandling of a camera, something any student on this campus could operate better than the guys who shot this movie.

Perhaps there was some potential for fun action here, but they’ve not only squandered hope of that, but also of competent writing and acting that make the original 1984 flick look like Citizen Kane by comparision. A failure on any level you want to put it, “Red Dawn” is one of the year’s worst movies and likely one of the worst movies you could find in modern day 21st century filmmaking.