Mauve Dawn

Good Flick Except Guy on Right

Last night was date night so we journeyed into Worcester (teen aged vampires still dominating the local theater) to see the remake of Red Dawn.  The original is still one of my favorite movies of all time so I was excited when I heard this was coming out.  My daughter provided me with a litany of reasons not to see it because apparently its release has been delayed for years.  While I love my daughter dearly, action flicks are not exactly in her wheel house, and come on – Red Dawn!.  There was no way I was not going to see this movie.

It turned out alright, at least for ¾ of the movie.  The only bad things about the movie were the ending, the music, and Josh Peck.  I don’t remember seeing him in anything else but apparently he went to the same acting school as Ryan Gosling which must emphasize blank stares into the camera.  If he is related in anyway to Gregory Peck then Atticus must be turning over in his grave.  The music was one of the great things about the original- peaking with the Wolverine anthem which made the screaming of the name, “Wolverine” so memorable after a victory.  Poor Josh Hutcherson was entrusted with this iconic moment and the lack of music killed it.  That’s the bad stuff; the rest of the movie is a pretty good update on the old classic. 

Chris Hemsworth is a bona fide star and dominates the movie as Matt Eckert.  The females were also ably played led by Adrian Palicki.  The best part of the entire movie is when Jeffrey Dean Morgan appears on screen.  He was perfectly cast as the real soldier coming to aid the kids in their battle.  The action scenes were well staged if a little hard to follow at times.  All the original character names are preserved but they are taken in a new direction for the most part which was kind of cool.  Definitely not a great movie but acceptable and reaffirming my caution in my daughter’s action movie credentials. (I’m going to pay for that!) The funniest thing was that my wife loved it and now wants to see the original.

The rest of yesterday was fairly mundane.  I actually did the driving for the technology van and we went pretty far afield, including all the way out by my house.  This proved kind of unnerving because we had to stop several times on a very busy highway for the technician to acquire the needed coordinates.  I was nervously watching the rear view mirror for some idiot to come barreling around the corner and wiping us out.  This was compounded by the constant snowfall we had all day – so – high adventure.

Weird that it snowed all day and into the night but there was hardly any accumulation.  It made for a spectacular view this morning.  Even though this was just a dusting I was prepared to attack with my snow blower until my wife told me that was ridiculous and she didn’t want to be embarrassed by having to explain to the neighbors why I was up disturbing their sleep with less than a quarter inch of snow.  I felt a little deprived but decided to accept her counsel, I mean she wants to see Red Dawn – gotta trust her judgment.

Front Yard this Morning with a Driveway Just Begging for Clearing

Back Yard this Morning - The Parrot is Not Crushing on the Weather