The Rescue

This more playful and adventurous paraphrase of Red Dawn by the writers of Predator was produced under the banner of Touchstone Pictures, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, and filmed in Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers studios and the captivating New Zealand exteriors that stand in for North Korea. This description alone indicates that The Rescue is a relatively bizarre curiosity. Despite its far-fetched premise, in which the children of Navy SEALs set out to free their dads from captivity in North Korea, the film is a mishmash of styles and genres that is ultimately relatively entertaining, especially in the final third, when the rescue operation tips over into an admittedly naive action-adventure. (2021.04.24)