My quick rating - 6,5/10. Very timely to get a rewatch of this one in. Remember seeing this one in the drive-in as a kid. Don't snitch on my Mom since I wasn't old enough to see the first PG-13 movie that was released in the USA. Pretty much what is happening right now in Ukraine. I wonder if the kiddos were sitting in class yesterday watching tanks drive into town. Scary thing is that is really happening now yet in this movie a bunch of kids were sitting in class in Colorado when Russian forces started dropping out of the sky. During the invasion, a soon-to-be all-star cast including the late Patrick Swayze are able to escape into the mountains after stopping to load up on supplies. For the time that this was made, it was a clear political piece with the cold war still being a very hot and relevant topic. Try to put all of that nonsense aside since this is not some propaganda flick for the USA but merely a patriotic piece of entertainment. After a few months of camping, they head back to town and find out that the Cuban/Soviets have taken control of a portion of the USA and either killed or imprisoned their parents. So back to their hideout with a couple of extras to add to their soon-to-be fighting cause "Wolverines" In between times of silly action the flick actually does portray some of the brutal nature of war. But for the most part, it is just an action flick that captured that "what would you do" spirit that many saw and either hated or loved about it. The "Wolverines" start their own little Guerilla war against the invaders with smart and sneaky attacks to agitate them. It works for entertainment and surprisingly still holds up well after all these years. The casting of the adults in this flick is just as good as the younger cast and is quite strong. Especially when William Smith shows up to motivate the troops and hunt down the "ferocious animals". The explanation for the whole invasion is silly, to say the least. "From here they came up from the Mexican border, mostly Cubans" if you get my meaning. Those pesky Cubans in Mexico. As the movie goes on they do tackle some of the issues that you assume kids would be running into playing military games such as death and betrayal. Since the movie is nearly 40 years old, there have been plenty written about all the politics of this flick so I'll leave that to you to find but if you are like me, just sit back and watch it for the effective action scenes and that "YAY America" feeling that it really drives down your throat. BTW, they did throw a reboot on this in 2012 in case you would like North Korea invading which was nowhere near as good.
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