A Quick Review of Red Tails

            Hey fellow Internet users, I’m usually known as TheCinemaChick.  I’m finally on my fifth and final review for this past week.  I will admit, I’m rather hesitant to write this one because it does deal with the topic of racial inequality.  Red Tails is about the famous Tuskegee airmen from World War II.  I can’t say if it’s historically inaccurate or not because history isn’t my strong suit.  It’s a George Lucas film, which is something I didn’t know until I saw it.

            However, I really didn’t like it.  I feel so horrible for saying it, but I really was unimpressed.  There isn’t much history in there.  Instead, it focuses on a small group of men, but honestly, I couldn’t tell you their names.  On top of their real names, they all had nicknames, but then they’d switch between the two so I got confused.  I sort of figured it out later in the film when they all had their nicknames painted on their planes.  Honestly, if your character is going to have two names, make it clear which one he’ll use otherwise the audience will get confused.

            Also, the downside to following so many stories is that you don’t get the full story for each one.  One of the airmen, who was called Ray Gun, does get captured by German soldiers.  He and a few others managed to escape the prison, but right when it gets to a highly dramatic moment, it cuts to another scene.  This happened a lot and after a while, I was just bored with it.  We’ve got Easy, Lightening, Ray Gun, Deacon, Coffee…the stories get twisted then some things are similar and it just gets confusing.

            This is a prime example of a film having an overdeveloped plot.  There are some movies that don’t have much of a plot at all, such as Underworld: Awakening, but this was had too much going on for it to be enjoyable for me.

            And that’s such a disappointment because this is seriously is one of the best film casts ever assembled.  Having Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. is enough to get me to the theater.  Let’s add Bryan Cranston, Ne-Yo, and Method Man.  Seriously, this cast couldn’t get any better…unless you added Samuel L. Jackson.  Samuel L. Jackson is quite possibly one of the most badass actors around.

            I did mention this has George Lucas’s name on it.  Well…during the fight scenes, that becomes painfully obvious.  I found it hard to enjoy the aerial battles because it looks so much like Star Wars.  In fact, it’s almost like a bad imitation of one of the Star Wars movies.  During close up shots, it’s so clear that they are sitting in a replica of the plane in front of a green screen.

            I guess this movie just didn’t impress me as much as the media said it would.  The previews make it out to be this epic war movie with tons of battles with the theme of brotherhood running throughout.  What I got was a slowly paced movie that’s two thirds talking and one third action.  Most of the time, the characters are either in meetings or sitting around and the audience is getting to know them.  It could have been a really good movie, but it just didn’t cut it for me.

            I’m TheCinemaChick and I’ve run out of things to say.