OT: Movie Review- Red Tails

[YankeeAirRat]

So tonight I had a chance to catch a special preview screening of the new LucasArts films "Red Tails". The trailers look good! The movie? It reminds me of that Affleck movie with those planes and those ships in that one port. All sorts of accuracy issues with uniforms and flight gear (one of the pilots was wearing a replicate flight helmet that RAF pilots wore, while another was always wearing a USN summer flight helmet), then there was numerous guys walking around with thier ball caps backwards, or over sized ballcaps and similar sort of fadish things. The flight scenes were good, but if you had seen "Sky Captain" or any of the latest versions of the Star Wars trilogy then the same sort of computer blue screen stuff happened in Sky Captain and Pre-trilogy of Star Wars happens here. Oh, yea about Star Wars references it is because this is a George Lucas produced product with his name and touch all over it. There is a love story here, but too much time is spent in my opinion with the senior officers fighting in the Pentagon to allow the Tuskgee Squadrons to fly combat or too much time at base with the airmen fighting each other to tell an effective story of the real history here. What ultimately killed it for me though was the closing scene of the film. I won't spoil it too much, but lets just say that George was so untrusting of real life that he had to use computers to represent a whole squadron standing in formation, so he had a few actors and the rest were computer generated.
This film is supposed to be out on the 20th of January for the general public in the US and if I had to recommend it, I would say wait a weekend and try to catch the early morning maintee or wait till it hits your local dollar theater. This is too much like that Affleck movie in scope. If I had to recommend a movie to anyone it would be the HBO special from 1996 with Laurence Fishburne, Andre Braugher, Maclom J. Warner and Cuba Gooding Junior in it.

[CaptBeefheart]

Thanks for the heads up. It's almost to the point where I don't bother seeing war movies anymore--what's the point? Hollywood cannot ever take a great standalone true story without trying to make it
"better" or inserting modern day morality. What, did I say "almost?" Sorry, it IS to the point where I don't bother.

Example: "Windtalkers"--A perfectly dramatic, somewhat unknown true story where Hollywood feels like it has to add the plot device that these Navajo have to be killed before they fall into enemy hands. Stoopid.

Cheers,
CC

[jeffs]

The HBO version was rather watchable...It is not like the story needs any embellishments..
Outside of doing a great job of fighting the Nazis they had to fight an inquisition from some racist senators...

Then they do a great job (on youtube one can find the history channel`s dogfights...they have a segment on the
redtails with appearances by a few of the actual pilots...They were very cool worth checking out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF10wMytCCg

[mdiehl]

Sounds like a movie to wait for the $5 bargain bin sale. Oh well. At least there's John Carter to look forward to if you've read Burroughs.

[crsutton]

It may be OK, but I am going to have a hard time watching a serious movie that has Whatley the dentist from "Seinfield" in it. [:D]

[mdiehl]

[:D]

[jeffk3510]

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

Thanks for the heads up. It's almost to the point where I don't bother seeing war movies anymore--what's the point? Hollywood cannot ever take a great standalone true story without trying to make it
"better" or inserting modern day morality. What, did I say "almost?" Sorry, it IS to the point where I don't bother.

Example: "Windtalkers"--A perfectly dramatic, somewhat unknown true story where Hollywood feels like it has to add the plot device that these Navajo have to be killed before they fall into enemy hands. Stoopid.

Cheers,
CC

Agreed with Windtalkers.

[oldman45]

A few years back I had the pleasure to sit down with a former Tuskegee pilot. They could of made a movie about the story he told. They had an amazing record in the air. Shame they just can't tell it like it was.

[Canoerebel]

Hollywood is just awful...and, yet, some pretty credible war movies come out from time to time:  Enemy at the Gates, Letters from Iwo Jima, Saving Private Ryan, Glory, and Gettysburg come to mind.
 
But when they get it wrong, which is pretty often, they turn it into a steaming pile of dung from an overheated jungle bat.

[FatR]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Hollywood is just awful...and, yet, some pretty credible war movies come out from time to time:  Enemy at the Gates,

This one is about as credible as the movie that should not be mentioned here.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

It may be OK, but I am going to have a hard time watching a serious movie that has Whatley the dentist from "Seinfield" in it. [:D]

You always did strike me as an anti-dentite. [;)]

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: FatR

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Hollywood is just awful...and, yet, some pretty credible war movies come out from time to time:  Enemy at the Gates,

This one is about as credible as the movie that should not be mentioned here.

You don't believe Vasily spoke with an English accent? You have difficulty suspending your disbelief for those phenomenal sniper shots which appeared to be taken from 50 yards or less? [:D]

[jeffk3510]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: FatR

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Hollywood is just awful...and, yet, some pretty credible war movies come out from time to time:  Enemy at the Gates,

This one is about as credible as the movie that should not be mentioned here.

You don't believe Vasily spoke with an English accent? You have difficulty suspending your disbelief for those phenomenal sniper shots which appeared to be taken from 50 yards or less? [:D]

The best part is that Ed Harris is a badass German sniper.

[jeffk3510]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Hollywood is just awful...and, yet, some pretty credible war movies come out from time to time:  Enemy at the Gates, Letters from Iwo Jima, Saving Private Ryan, Glory, and Gettysburg come to mind.

But when they get it wrong, which is pretty often, they turn it into a steaming pile of dung from an overheated jungle bat.

I really enjoyed Glory. I also like Pacific and Band of Brothers.

[Lecivius]

ORIGINAL: mdiehl

Sounds like a movie to wait for the $5 bargain bin sale. Oh well. At least there's John Carter to look forward to if you've read Burroughs.

I didn't know about this. I may need to head over to Google.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: oldman45

A few years back I had the pleasure to sit down with a former Tuskegee pilot. They could of made a movie about the story he told. They had an amazing record in the air. Shame they just can't tell it like it was.

We have a former Tuskegee pilot in my neighborhood. He used to give regular talks at the local library but is getting on now.

[TOMLABEL]

ORIGINAL: YankeeAirRat

So tonight I had a chance to catch a special preview screening of the new LucasArts films "Red Tails". The trailers look good! The movie? It reminds me of that Affleck movie with those planes and those ships in that one port. All sorts of accuracy issues with uniforms and flight gear (one of the pilots was wearing a replicate flight helmet that RAF pilots wore, while another was always wearing a USN summer flight helmet), then there was numerous guys walking around with thier ball caps backwards, or over sized ballcaps and similar sort of fadish things. The flight scenes were good, but if you had seen "Sky Captain" or any of the latest versions of the Star Wars trilogy then the same sort of computer blue screen stuff happened in Sky Captain and Pre-trilogy of Star Wars happens here. Oh, yea about Star Wars references it is because this is a George Lucas produced product with his name and touch all over it. There is a love story here, but too much time is spent in my opinion with the senior officers fighting in the Pentagon to allow the Tuskgee Squadrons to fly combat or too much time at base with the airmen fighting each other to tell an effective story of the real history here. What ultimately killed it for me though was the closing scene of the film. I won't spoil it too much, but lets just say that George was so untrusting of real life that he had to use computers to represent a whole squadron standing in formation, so he had a few actors and the rest were computer generated.
This film is supposed to be out on the 20th of January for the general public in the US and if I had to recommend it, I would say wait a weekend and try to catch the early morning maintee or wait till it hits your local dollar theater. This is too much like that Affleck movie in scope. If I had to recommend a movie to anyone it would be the HBO special from 1996 with Laurence Fishburne, Andre Braugher, Maclom J. Warner and Cuba Gooding Junior in it.

Well you just ruined it for me, but thanks for saving me money. I do not want to see another TMTSNBM and I agree that the Tusckegee Airmen was a good show.

The other one on my list is War Horse just b/c I'm an animal lover (not over the edge), but it looks interesting.

[noguaranteeofsanity]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Hollywood is just awful...and, yet, some pretty credible war movies come out from time to time:  Enemy at the Gates, Letters from Iwo Jima, Saving Private Ryan, Glory, and Gettysburg come to mind.

But when they get it wrong, which is pretty often, they turn it into a steaming pile of dung from an overheated jungle bat.

Then you definately won't like Battleship. They have somehow managed to turn a game about very simplified naval battles, into a film about the navy battling alien invaders. It has already been criticised by James Cameron as falling victim to Hollywoods 'story crisis', where brand names are more important than the actual story.

Although I have some hope for the remake of Battle of Midway, as the writer and producer of the Pacifc mini-series is behind it. Of course they could always stuff that up as well.

[msieving1]

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

Hollywood cannot ever take a great standalone true story without trying to make it
"better" or inserting modern day morality.

Hollywood has been doing that since "Birth of a Nation". And before that, theater was doing the same since Sophocles.

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: YankeeAirRat

So tonight I had a chance to catch a special preview screening of the new LucasArts films "Red Tails". The trailers look good! The movie? It reminds me of that Affleck movie with those planes and those ships in that one port. All sorts of accuracy issues with uniforms and flight gear (one of the pilots was wearing a replicate flight helmet that RAF pilots wore, while another was always wearing a USN summer flight helmet), then there was numerous guys walking around with thier ball caps backwards, or over sized ballcaps and similar sort of fadish things. The flight scenes were good, but if you had seen "Sky Captain" or any of the latest versions of the Star Wars trilogy then the same sort of computer blue screen stuff happened in Sky Captain and Pre-trilogy of Star Wars happens here. Oh, yea about Star Wars references it is because this is a George Lucas produced product with his name and touch all over it. There is a love story here, but too much time is spent in my opinion with the senior officers fighting in the Pentagon to allow the Tuskgee Squadrons to fly combat or too much time at base with the airmen fighting each other to tell an effective story of the real history here. What ultimately killed it for me though was the closing scene of the film. I won't spoil it too much, but lets just say that George was so untrusting of real life that he had to use computers to represent a whole squadron standing in formation, so he had a few actors and the rest were computer generated.
This film is supposed to be out on the 20th of January for the general public in the US and if I had to recommend it, I would say wait a weekend and try to catch the early morning maintee or wait till it hits your local dollar theater. This is too much like that Affleck movie in scope. If I had to recommend a movie to anyone it would be the HBO special from 1996 with Laurence Fishburne, Andre Braugher, Maclom J. Warner and Cuba Gooding Junior in it.

I have see (I think 3) trailers...it is bad one if one can judge movie from trailer... <SIGH>

The air combat depicted in trailers is another Hollywood style fantasyland... shame... [&:]


Leo "Apollo11"