Red Tails

Red Tails (2012)

35% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 85 reviews)

Runtime: 121 minutes

Directed by: Anthony Hemingway

Starring: Nate Parker, David Oyelowo, Ne-Yo, Tristan Wilds

From: 20th Century Fox

Here's a movie that has sounded interesting to me for awhile, despite the aspect of it being executively produced by a certain George Lucas. After his last few films, it's natural to have at least some reservations about something with his name attached to it. But, then again it was a movie he had been looking to do since '88 and he put in many millions of dollars to have it made so it was a labor of love for him.

I was going to see it during this past weekend and then on Monday but things got in the way of that, so it wasn't until earlier tonight that I was able to go out to the local cineplex to check it out. To steal the plot synopsis from the official site of the film:

1944. To help win the war, the Pentagon brass has no choice but to consider the untested African-American pilots of the experimental Tuskegee training program. Just as the young Tuskegee men are about to be shut down and shipped back home, they are given the ultimate chance to show their courage. These intrepid young airmen take to the skies to fight for their country - and the fate of the free world.

That is a pretty accurate description of the movie's plot. Even though I'm a history guy I doesn't know as much as I should about the Tuskegee Airmen. After I watched this, I still am not sure how much more I learned about them. I just hope Hollywood didn't fabricate too much. Then again, I heard old George did a lot of research through the years on the subject so I guess I shouldn't worry about that too much.

As for the film, the story isn't always presented in the best way, the dialogue and situations seem straight out of a World War II film that was made while World War II was still going on (at least Lucas isn't still in the 1930's serials), and it's real cornball stuff at times. Yet, I can't say I hated the movie at all; in fact, I thought it was entertaining for what it was. The performances all around are nice (even from Ne-Yo, playing a character named Smokey who believe it or not did remind me of Smokey from Friday), with Oyelowo as the hotshot Lightning definitely being the most dynamic and intriguing character. You also have roles from Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard, with small roles from Bryan Cranston and Major Dad... whoops, I mean Gerald McRaney.

The flying scenes are cartoony but hell, they are exciting so you won't see me carp about that. As long as you know going in how cliché and cornball things can get, then you should probably enjoy this tale about some truly great men from history's past who deserve the attention for the contributions to the history of the United States. The cliches may be old and hoary, but some of them still work rather well. Oh, and this sort of movie with a predominantly African-American cast should do well as it would be nice for Hollywood to produce more films such as that; Lord knows this is far better than the gobshite you get from Tyler Perry!

I'll be back Friday night with a new review.