Red Tails

Takes a tense slice of American history and dumbs it down for the Jar Jar generation. If racism can be solved by flying a single convoy mission over Germany, then it's high time we start another war with Hitler's brain.

The film doesn't really focus on one aspect, it's about flying airplanes, but also about racism in the army, love that overcomes language barrier, drinking problem etc. Dialogs are weak, only thing I enjoyed are the battles and the beautiful airplanes!

I'm impressed that somehow the crew grew into adulthood, and made an entire movie without ever talking to another human being, because the dialog is uncanny valley territory. There are conversations, but they aren't recognizable as how humans talk, either in word or in delivery. The white characters get the worst of it, possibly because they're ancillary. The dogfights are okay, but it just felt so fake I couldn't stand it. A shame because you could make a killer film from this subject.

In the international market this was released as "Palmolive" because it's so sanitized.

This is not an A list caliber movie with only whiffs of historical accuracy, given, but even as a B movie it's weak. Dialog, acting, plot, and narrative all fall flat. And what's with the 1944 .50 cal with what are apparently HE rounds? It strives to be mediocre and falls just shy. This movie doesn't fail because it has black fighter pilots or "lacks broad appeal", it fails because it legitimately sucks of it's own accord.

Some good aerials, some bad everything else. The acting and writing are atrocious.

Red Tails is not your typical Hollywood blockbuster action romp. Though filled with CGI, Red Tails shares more in common with heroic films of the 40s and 70s, championing character and sentiment over realism and grit. In spite of its many flaws (and there are many), Red Tails remains an inspiring tale true at heart. Unfortunately, director Anthony Hemingway can't fully realize the films most important moments, and as such Red Tails can't cross the threshold of good.

It has an enjoyable World War II pulp sensibility to it and there are some exciting, well-choreographed dogfight sequences (plus several cast members from The Wire). But it also suffers from slack pacing that makes it feel longer than it really is, plus an undeniably anticlimactic ending. It's probably worth checking out if you have an interest in World War II or just Lucasfilm productions in general, but I can't say I have any interest in seeing the hypothetical sequel Lucas spoke of.

Despite Lucas' supposedly good intentions, "Red Tails" is an out-of-touch cartoon with an embarrassingly trite script that makes a mockery of the same people it claims to want to eulogize.

I was going to give this a lower score, for it's cliche filled and wooden story, where the Americans just need to fire a burst to down a ME-109, while the Germans need muliple passes. But then I realized, this was probably made in the style of the patriotic "let's give it to the krauts" kind of film from the 40s-60s. Which of course the Tuskegee airmen never got for themselves, because of the racists.

The story of the Tuskegee Airmen SHOULD have made for a good movie, but it was unfortunately ruined by terrible writing & acting. The ending felt more like the end of the second act than the end of the movie itself, but at least it was over.

yet another film about black people. Jesus!

Excellent flying sequences, looks good. The story is weak when it shouldn't have been.

Urgh, this was such a lifeless film of a great subject. I would have really wanted to love it, but everything from the action to the dialogue just feels dead. Some of the action sequences were cool, but not realistic. The actors, who I've seen excel in other movies, are just here to repeat some lines because the script doesn't give anything to work with.

If you're going to make a movie about the Red Tails, the very least thing you ought to do would be to get some proper actors. Poor acting mixed with the personification of evil, in a weird german flight commander makes this one of the worst films I have ever seen.. There's 2 hours of my life i'll never get back.

http://gorgview.com/red-tails

Some fun action scenes, a thin plot, cardboard cut-out characters, and historical accuracy almost entirely out the window. A good premise wasted on a sub-mediocre film. The only reason to watch this is if you're interested in aviation, though if you know anything about WWII aerial warfare you'll probably be annoyed by some scenes.

Doesn't live up to its promise. Acting to flat and action/story mostly flat.

Enjoyed it as an aviation buff, but the historical inaccuracies and the acting/story were annoying.

Worthy concept that is poorly done. As expected from a modern Lucas production, the deficiencies in dialogue and performance are abundantly clear, but without the imagination and flair that he brings as a director, there is nothing to compensate for these overriding flaws. The CGI mostly looks cheap, and the entire production has a chintzy quality that is hard to ignore and shows just how difficult it is to compete on the same playing field as the major studios.

I have no idea who green lit this movie, but the fact that the producers really didn't fund it as much as it needed is easily evident. The script needed a lot of work and the direction could have been a hell of a lot better, but there's still at least a spark of a good movie here.

Red Tails is a WW2 film with a level of complexity comparable to Disney's Peter Pan or Pixar's Planes. The director's only goal appears to be to show the thrills and spills of dogfighting, the personal journeys of a few individuals, and the glory of the (African-) American nation. Totally glossing over the reality and horror of war and the massive casualties associated with these flying missions. Possibly the most creative fictionalisation of war since Triumph of the Will.

I was extremely hyped for this movie when it was released. The CGI is good enough for what it needs to be, and there are some okay sub-plots thrown at you. The dogfighting is good as others have mentioned. In places, the acting leaves something to be desired; in other places, it leaves a LOT to be desired. I feel like this was a Spike Lee movie; the dialogue from a lot of the English-speaking white characters is stiff and robotic, and I feel that was intentional. In any case, an alright flick.

the movie is real flat and has a plastic feel.. but the dogfight scenes are very well choreographed and fun to watch..

I would rather rewatch this than Attack of the Clones, to be fair. It's really quite bad as a World War II movie, though. The stereotype meter is off the charts.

Red Tails is defined by its truly dreadful dialogue delivered with severely mis-matched enthusiasm from a mediocre cast. From cartoonish, southern-accented racial bigotry to self-affirming speeches, the film bypasses preachiness into self-undermining silly territory as Lucas plays fast & loose with history. The score is trite, failing in its attempts to add gravitas in between CG dogfights that aren't as fun as they needed to be. At least there's a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude.

The plus sides are that it has at times an old-school pulp adventure war movie feel to it (and the dogfights are solidly shot. The downsides are the characters are all one-dimensional and therefor uninteresting, the pilots are superherolevel good making the dogfight lack real stakes, besides the mandatory death for dramatic purposes. But above all it thinks can convey how bad racism is by screaming that at the screen instead of making the viewer experience how it feels to be discriminated at.

Some very hammy dialog is compensated by impressive aerial action scenes. The writing is kind of weak, but this is definitely worth watching for the dogfights alone.

If you can get by the often cringe-worthy dialogue and excessive run time due to a few unnecessary side-plots you can enjoy a movie with some great looking dogfights.

Q: How do you ruin one of the most interesting stories in American military history? A: Red Tails. The greatest sin of this movie is that it fails to let us explore these individuals as individuals. They have no personalities beyond broad types and minor character developments (one is cocky, one is pushy, one falls in love with an Italian girl, one gets hurt, one has an alcohol problem, one is more clearly from the South than the others, etc.) What a disappointing mess.

Top badass moment? Joe "Lightening" Little does two strafing runs over a Nazi destroyer in his P-51 Mustang. The ship basically blows up. That's badass and somewhat unlikely. For that reason alone, we shouldn't let a little something like military realism or historical accuracy spoil the action. That's what the History Channel is for. The dog fights look and sound great though, so it’s worth watching for them alone. For fans of Star Wars. No cats, chainsaws or decapitations.

Good visual effects and fun to watch if you are interested in WWII air battles. Other than that, a very cheesy movie. Okay, the characters are alright but still, not a very serious war movie. George Lucas should be forbidden from making any other films.

I was thinking coming in what a great story but after watching the acting and side stories were awful.

Shamefully bad, the men the film is about deserved a lot better.

Remember that scene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark," when a swastika-stamped Nazi crate explodes for no good reason (beyond the fact that the Ark hates Nazis)? Red Tails is like that, only less awesome, and considerably longer.

The only way it'd be cornier is if they cast Tommy Davidson

Mixed performances; Lucas writing; largely unexplored premise.

ok

It's been a long time I've seen a dogfight movie. This is worth the watch. There are some unnecessary plotlines but they are easy to ignore.

1+ avoid at all costs

Forget everything about historical accuracy and realism in this Hollywood movie. It's extremely one dimensional where they good guys are super good at flying and the bad guys not. Visually it's a great popcorn movie but it's a shame that they cared little to develop the characters beyond cliches as the story in the film is so unbelievable that in my opinion it belittles the real effort of the Tuskegee airmen.

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Predictable story line and some cheesy acting by everyone but Cuba and Terrence. Good action and graphics though, and still a moving story.