Red Dawn
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: November 21, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
31
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
14
Negative:
18
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
67
The PlaylistWilliam GossSep 28, 2012
It's easy to take most films' war-torn elsewheres for granted, and taken on its own merits, Red Dawn is a victory of small battles and heavy artillery, sentimental but rarely too hackneyed, energetic without becoming too silly. Read full review
60
VarietyJoe LeydonSep 30, 2012
Despite the considerable impediment of a premise arguably even sillier than that of the original "Red Dawn," helmer Dan Bradley's long-delayed remake of John Milius' 1984 kids-vs.-Commies adventure delivers enough thrilling action sequences and rock-'em, sock-'em fantasy-fulfillment to amp its B.O. potential. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 21, 2012
The best segments of the film occur early, as the setting is established with a dose of "Friday Night Lights" normalcy followed by an invasion that recalls "Independence Day." Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 20, 2012
Ultimately, the problem with this Red Dawn is the same problem with the first one. Despite the more realistic battle scenes, nothing in it feels more fateful than a football game. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumNov 20, 2012
Thor's Chris Hemsworth leads the pack as a high school football star-turned-Marine, while Josh Peck plays his stubborn younger brother. There's also a collection of junior guerrillas, including The Hunger Games' Josh Hutcherson and Friday Night Lights' Adrianne Palicki. Take that, screaming North Koreans with no agenda! Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoNov 20, 2012
As a combat action spectacle, the movie takes a straightforward, gritty approach that makes for mostly solid viewing. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 20, 2012
Only those with paranoid fantasies of an en masse invasion on American soil will find Red Dawn remotely powerful. The concept should have been updated to allow for more complex and surreptitious kinds of warfare. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 20, 2012
Many of the original film's booby-trap scenarios are repeated here, but without Milius' grandiosity and nihilism. There's less of both in the new Red Dawn. It's not a disaster. It's just drab. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckNov 16, 2012
This version is unlikely to strike a similar chord with young audiences while severely disappointing older fans of the original. Read full review
42
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 20, 2012
It's enough to make Kim Jong ill. Read full review
40
Total FilmNeil SmithMar 11, 2013
The doltish, messy and frequently incoherent result bears all the hallmarks of a botched and compromised endeavour. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenNov 20, 2012
While a foreign regime exerting its emergent power over America certainly has a familiar ring to it, if anything, this new Red Dawn is a movie in search of its moment. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 20, 2012
In his debut the director, Dan Bradley, a stunt coordinator with a long list of credits, handles the low-fi action well, which helps divert attention from the bargain-bin special effects, bad acting and politics. Read full review
40
Village VoiceNick PinkertonNov 20, 2012
Single-mindedly action-oriented to the point where Milius's film seems relatively ruminative. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 20, 2012
A new Red Dawn could have been so much more fun had it thrown a properly out-of-bounds tea party. (It lacks the signature brawn of original director John Milius, a guns-first libertarian.) Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyNov 21, 2012
The filmmakers have altered the premise from the unlikely to the ridiculous. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 21, 2012
Hobbled by a laughably bad script and a uniformly uncharismatic cast. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithNov 21, 2012
The dull, predictable direction is the perfect match for a watery, nondescript cast. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertNov 20, 2012
A closing scene, rousingly patriotic, takes place back on the football field. I think I'm beginning to understand why the Chinese were not reckoned to be a prime market for this film. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsNov 20, 2012
This world is divided between the makers and the takers, and after just a few minutes of Red Dawn, you'll realize there's not much more you can take. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasNov 21, 2012
Red Dawn without the jingoism is like a pie without the filling - it collapses into splintered mush. Read full review
30
NPRMark JenkinsNov 23, 2012
The new Red Dawn's body count is as high as its predecessor's. But the fatalism in all of Milius' projects - even the silliest ones - has weight. That's not the case with the remake, whose portrayal of violence derives more from video games than from history. Read full review
30
TimeMary PolsNov 21, 2012
If it weren't for him (Hemsworth), surely the Red Dawn remake would have gone straight to video; he's the only person worth watching in it (oh the pain of watching the wan Isabel Lucas hoist a rocket launcher). Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 21, 2012
Although the original Red Dawn was far-fetched, the remake offers little but vicarious thrills. Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 20, 2012
Could be fun, you might think. No. Bad acting and worse dialogue quickly put an end to that notion. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianStephen WhittyNov 23, 2012
The movie never pauses -- at least, not to waste time on anything like developing the female characters. But there's no edge to anything, either dramatically or politically. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 20, 2012
Unfortunately, the characters are so programmatic, the premise so ridiculous and the situations so far-fetched even if you accept that premise that no energy can be built, and the little that's there can't be sustained. Red Dawn is a vigorous but pointless exercise. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 15, 2013
This has to be the year's most pointless remake: a boring and badly acted reboot of John Milius's gung-ho red-scare actioner from 1984. Read full review
20
EmpireNick de SemlyenMar 11, 2013
Long-delayed. Arguably not long enough. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNov 21, 2012
In this group, only Hemsworth stands out. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianNov 16, 2012
It feeds the warrior fantasies of adolescent boys with a testosterone-heavy tale of a war free of moral complications. Read full review
10
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNov 21, 2012
Love it or hate it, Milius's original Red Dawn looks like an Akira Kurosawa masterpiece next to this latest iteration, directed by Dan Bradley. Read full review
10
Boxoffice MagazineDavid EhrlichNov 21, 2012
And so, nearly four years since it rolled cameras, the sun rises on another Red Dawn, which supplements the irresponsibility of the original with an incompetency all its own. Read full review
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