Tomorrow, When The War Began - Just like Red Dawn (apparently?)

If you read a lot of comments about Tomorrow, When the War Began, you may come to the conclusion that it's just a blatant rip-off of the eighties action flick `Red Dawn.' To be honest, I have no idea whether it is or it isn't, as I haven't seen either Red Dawn, or the remake.

Therefore, I'm looking at the film as a new piece of work, not just Australia's answer to Red Dawn. And, I think it's pretty good. Not great. It's not a classic work of art that will stand the test of time while scholars with pointy beards discuss its depth and meaning. It's just a fun film.

Seven Australian teenagers go camping for the weekend and when they come home, they find that some nasty old foreign army has taken over their town and slung all their old folks into barbed wire camps. So, what to they do? Do they simply sit down and tweet their disapproval, updating their Facebook statuses to a multitude of frowny faces? Or do they what the soldiers on the backs of their heads, steal their weapons and become an elite band of resistance fighters? Clue: it's the latter.

However, being a teenager is never easy. Taking aside the invading force trying to kill them at every turn, the poor prepubescent clique still has to deal with relationship issues and `does he, or doesn't he' like me type dilemmas in between firefights and gorilla warfare missions.

There are two ways to enjoy Tomorrow, When the War Began. The first is to be a teenager yourself. That way you won't have seen many movies and you'll find this deep, meaningful and terribly dramatic. The second way is - like me - take one of the biggest pinches of salt ever, then sit back and enjoy the action and the daftness. Apparently, the sequel is on its way and I'll be watching that, too.

Some movies don't have to be good, they just have to be entertaining. This is one. Move over Twilight and The Hunger Games, the invasion has begun.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that