In the '80s, there was a whole movement of these pulpy films. They weren't generally big draws at the box office, but were saved like so many other titles by the home video revolution and ended up getting plenty of love on endless TV reruns.
The new Red Dawn isn't that much better than the original and doesn't make much more sense. About the only thing it doesn't do is make the imposing of Sharia law part of its package of horrors.
There are plenty of battles in the new version of Conan the Barbarian, but the two key matchups -- pitting this film against the 1982 version -- wind up as a draw. Sort of.