The production of "Red Dawn" (2012) was famously troubled. A remake of the 1984 hit of the same name about American high school students waging guerrilla war in defense of the homeland against communist invaders, the new "Red Dawn" is also, in a sense, a remake of itself.
In preemptively appeasing the Chinese cultural commissars, the filmmakers behind the new "Red Dawn" have abandoned realistic detail for toothless fantasy in the hopes of gaining lucre.
Perhaps it's karma. Where the George W. Bush years saw a seemingly endless skein of liberal films hitting theaters, it looks like conservatives might finally be getting their turn at the multiplexes.
This year's remake of 1982's "Conan the Barbarian" is ignorant, apathetic and perfectly pleased to traffic in mindless violence.
Just as Hollywood has been inundated with movies about American military engagement in recent years, the game market has been crowded with war-themed shooters. But in sharp contrast to films like "Lions for Lambs," "Syriana," and "Redacted," military shooters have often been astoundingly successful.
It was practically preordained that Hollywood would greenlight a remake of "Red Dawn." The new film is due out later this year, but MGM's attempt to retell the story in a post-Soviet world, this time with Red China as the aggressor, is already facing its own controversy.
"Religion never registered in this season's installment of 'Mad Men.' It didn't need to. The implications of faith, morality and Protestant privilege echoed through the episodes, delineating expectations about work and family, gender roles and even child-rearing," writes Diane Winston at the Scoop.
