10 Remakes Of Classic '80s Movies That Bombed Terribly

2. Red Dawn

The Original: The mid-80s were rife with patriotic action movies, and few were as gung-ho as John Milius’ Red Dawn, which turned Patrick Swayze, Lea Thompson and Charlie Sheen into guerrilla fighters defending their town from Commie invaders. The cast also includes C Thomas Howell and Jennifer Grey, so if you’ve ever wanted to see the leads from Dirty Dancing, The Hitcher and Back To The Future trying to stop the Russkies, you need to watch this movie.

The Remake: Rebooted as a load of PG-13 tosh for the Twilight demographic, Red Dawn 2012 gives us Chris Hemsworth as a Marine who attempts to stop an invasion of Washington state by North Korean paratroopers. The director is Dan Bradley, who’s better known as a stunt coordinator (The Expendables 3) and second unit director (Quantum Of Solace), so the emphasis is firmly on the action this time around. Considering how trite the story is, that was a good call.

When the movie opened at #7 in the US, plans for a worldwide release were shelved. On a budget of $65 million, the picture grossed only $44 million.