Red Dawn (2012) Review

Okay so, Red Dawn came out recently remade from the 1984 version. Opening statement? OUTSTANDING freaking movie!. You know it's very rare now-a-days that a movie can move you. Most of the time they're entertaining to a point. They can keep my interest  but ultimately don't affect me outside the movie theater if even that much. However, Red Dawn (at least this version) had me on the edge of my seat from about 10 minutes in to the end, and when I left the theater, I wanted to go fight some invaders.

In other news, from boob to badass. Josh Peck, better known as his roles in The Amanda Show, and Drake and Josh, stars in this action jam packed movie and does a hell of a job at it. Playing younger brother to Jed Eckert (Chris Hemsworth), a marine home on leave when out of freaking no where South Korea decides to say, "Hi" to the entire Pacific North West. That's all I'm going into for this part of the review. You'll find out all of that in the first 10 minutes so no spoilers there.

I think that Red Dawn was the best movie of the year (barely), but hold on to your tighty whiteys because I have some opinions to voice and I'm about to spoil the CRAP out of the rest of this movie. So skip to the last paragraph if you don't like spoilers.
I could handle The dad dying. The main characters need more motivation than just defending their home town. I could even handle the older brother dying towards the end of the movie. How else is the younger brother supposed to take his place? But, for crying out loud there is NO reason why Daryl Jenkins (Connor Cruise) had to be tagged, tracked, and therefore left behind. It was basically the last thing to happen in the movie before the closing montage, and in all honestly a pointless even on the director's part. So to elaborate, Daryl Jenkins is a sub-main character who lasts through almost the entire movie, (there were plenty of deaths so I was surprised). During the last major attack, he gets stabbed, or so we thought. Later after the assault, back at base the group gets attacked by the Koreans, where the older brother dies. After they escape, they wonder how in the world they were found. They take a closer look at the knife wound, which for the most part is closed, but not healed, and notice an item inside. They come to the conclusion that the item is a tracing device and decide to leave him behind with a few supplies. He was left by his friends and comrades with very few supplies and a giant arrows saying, "HERE I AM!" just so that the movie could have a reason for the group to be found and the older brother die. Honestly, the brother could have died some other way, or they could have gone back into the wound and, painfully, removed the device. They actually bring up that option and claim it's impossible because they have nothing to do it with. I call shenanigans. They had, not one, but two other marines with them at that point. I'm sure they had a knife on them. The reason I'm so worked up about this one event is because, honestly, it made me more sad than any other sad moment, because he was conscious. He was alive, and they made the decision to leave him behind. He wasn't crippled, hurt (other than a knife wound) or causing the party and hindrance other than being tracked, which could easily be solved. Everyone else left behind was either rescued or already dead. I hope to high heaven they make a sequel or something just so I can find out how Daryl did after they left him.

LAST PARAGRAPH! Okay so I'm done ranting about my spoiler moments and now we can continue with the review. All in all, Red Dawn was an AMAZING movie. I'm proud to award this movie my first 10/10 rating despite a certain part mentioned in the spoilers. Congratulations director Dan Bradley. You have made an astounding movie. Easily movie of the year. I advise ANYONE that can comprehend the significance of life death and war to watch the movie, regardless of preference to this genre. So go, go now, and watch it.