RED TAILS

Twentieth-Century Fox

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 125 Minutes



Click below to see the trailer of Red Tails.



Inspired by True Events, in Twentieth-Century Fox's Red Tails, a squadron of Negro fighter pilots must fight bigotry - as well as the Germans during World War II.

Executive Produced by George Lucas, and based on the book Red Tails: An Oral History of the Tuskegee Airmen  by John B. Holway,  Red Tails is set on their Eurpoean home air base in Italy as the pariah squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group of the Tuskegee Airmen from the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, must fight to get respect for being the first African American military aviators. They wanted to fight for freedom, just like all the other Americans. The Tuskegee Airmen also have to fight the boredom of being based one hundred miles from the front lines. Breaking ground by fighting bigotry at both the highest levels of the Pentagon - with the belief that African Americans can not have the relevant combat skills to go to war, especially when news about the Tuskegee Airmen's lack of performance gets leaked out  - and from their fellow military officers on the ground. These airmen go from attacking targets like trucks on the ground - "traffic" - to eventually fighting for their lives as they engage in air combat with Germany's most advanced fighter plane, the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter.

When General Gerald McRaney asks if Colonel Terrence Howard's men can protect McRaney's bombers from being shot out of the sky, Howard tells McRaney if he can get his men new planes, instead of the broken down Curtiss P-40 Warhawk planes they have now, they can protect McRaney's bombers. When the Tuskegee Airmen get the new P-51 Mustangs, Howard has the planes tails painted red - thus the Tuskegee Airmen become the Red Tails. The Red Tails soon become the bombers best friends. While the B-17 Bomber - otherwise known as "The Flying Fortress" which is a heavily armed plane which flew in wedges of 18 and 36 planes, and with half the crew as gunners with a firepower of a dozen or more high rate 50 caliber machine guns - the bombers were still an easy target for the enemy fighters as the bombers have to fly a specific flight plan to reach a ground target. As a result of being such easy targets, many bombers were lost - until the bombers had fighter escorts like the Red Tails, who were very successful in practically all of their missions as the Red Tails triumphed over adversity.

The film seemed to be uneven. I was expecting the formation of the Tuskegee Airman program. Instead they are already in place, but are being used for routine boring patrols. The stories on the ground seemed to be more like a soap opera, but not as bad as that. There was more focus on David Oyelowo's relationship with Italian girl Daniela Ruah than with most of the other characters. The movie is similar to the TV show Black Sheep Squadron, which was of a similar misfit squadron with an impressive war record. The ariel footage from Black Sheep Squadron seemed more real to me as I believe - but can not recall since it has been years since I saw the TV show - that the footage from Black Sheep Squadron came from 16mm gun camera footage. With all the CGI visual effects, the planes during the dogfights in Red Tails did not seem as believable to me. Gun camera footage from Oyelowo's plane in his various combat engagements is what is shown as projected from the 16mm film projector in the Red Tails mission briefings. When a pilot is captured later in the film and brought to a German Stalag, that aspect of the movie became more like the TV show Hogan's Heroes.

Half the background music was too modern - too synthesized - when compared to the period of the movie, at least what I noticed during the end credits. And when the Red Tails went out on their first real mission, the music was not as inspiring as I would have wanted as martial music is supposed to be. Having the Red Tails fight the new late entry to the war, the German Messerschmitt 262 jet fighters, was interesting as I usually think of the Korean War as having the first combat use of jet fighters. I was expecting film star Cuba Gooding Jr. to be more prominent in the movie, especially as he was in command of the airbase while Howard was off at the Pentagon - but once Howard returned to the base, all of the leadership went back to Howard and Gooding Jr. became a background character behind Howard. While there were some German subtitles, especially when German fighter pilot Pretty Boy Lars van Riesen is on screen, I would have liked to have seen Italian subtitles in the movie as well since they were in Italy - especially when Oyelowo is courting Ruah.

As a historical film, it is nice that the movie Red Tails came out in time for Black History Month.

Rated PG-13 for violence and sexual situations. Running Time: 125 Minutes

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

JOYFUL NOISE

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 118 Minutes



Click below to watch the Joyful Noise trailer.



In Warner Bros. Pictures Joyful Noise, Queen Latifah is made church choir director over Dolly Parton after Parton's husband, choir director Kris Kristofferson, passes away during a church choir competition.

A combination of Sister Act 2 and Footloose, this film is very uneven. While the music is great, most of the songs are popular secular songs used during church services - which felt very awkward for me. Very few of the songs the various church choirs sings actually mention Jesus or the Lord - and, of course, the songs are supposed to give greater glory to God. The film also is more about the relationship between Latifah's daughter Keke Palmer and Parton's troubled grandson Jeremy Jordan, who arrives at Parton's home after being kicked out of his mother's house. Despite the roughness of Jordan's background, Jordan is drawn to Palmer and joins the choir and is also a good influence and teacher to Latifah's son Dexter Darden who appears to have a form of autism. Darden liked one-hit wonders, especially Walk Away Renee by The Left Banke. I have always loved Walk Away Renee ever since I heard Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes do a cover song of this. The best scene in the film, the one that got to me, was when Darden was questioning why Latifah loves God so much - when Darden is really ticked off with God for making Darden the way he is. The scene was so heart-wrenching to me, and it really made me feel for Darden.

As a tenor singing in my church choir, I could not believe that there is hardly any rehearsal done in the music. There is choreography rehearsal, but no vocal rehearsals - which is where most of the work of a choir is, especially if you are singing harmonies. For such a small town/congregation, there seemed to be a large out of proportion amount of music ministers. It looked like there were more people in the music ministry than there was in the congregation. Are there that many musically talented people in a small town? In my church, out of 3,000 registered families, only .01% of the people are music ministers. Also, you only get to know half of the choir in the movie. The other choir members are just background singers and instrument players, and you do not know the instrument players at all. There was a relationship that was developing between two choir members Francis Jue and Angela Grovey which would have been a nice contrast to the dysfunctional relationships in the rest of the movie, but Jue's and Grovey's relationship ended up as a cheap joke. Although Kris Kristofferson has a song, Kristofferson has an extremely brief cameo in the movie - which was much less than I expected for the movie when I found out Kristofferson was involved in the movie.

The story itself is like a soap opera, with the focus of the movie on the rivalry between Parton and Latifa as well as the romance between Palmer and Jordan. There is no interaction with the parishioners of the church, just interaction with these members of the choir. Even Pastor Courtney B. Vance was more interested in the "business" of the church, instead of tending to his flock of people - and given the smallness of the town, you should have seen Vance more with the people as the church is the center of the community. Vance tending to the people is especially important with the town struggling with the economy and the closing of the local businesses. It is because of the economy that Latifa's husband Jesse L. Martin went back to the military for a paycheck to send back to his family, although nurse Latifa does not see it that way. All she cares about is that he left her. The theme of the movie was more like ME! ME! ME! instead of glorifying God.

Considering that Parton just lost her husband, you never got any grieving from her - and what happened to her family? Her sons were at the service and you never saw them again - and you never saw her daughter. No grieving or support for Parton after that. A couple of scenes after the service of grieving would have made Parton a little more believable. I have no idea whose child Jordan is as Parton's grandchild. That is how little Parton's family had an impact on me. I'm sad to say, just after seeing the movie - I found out my cousin had passed away, so Parton's lack of grieving and lack of support from her family had really upset me.

Rated PG-13 for language and sexual situations. Running time: 118 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

SHERLOCK HOLMES - A GAME OF SHADOWS

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 129 Minutes




Click below to watch the Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows trailer.



In Warner Bros. Pictures Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows, which is based on the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - the world's greatest detective Sherlock Holmes, Robert Downey Jr., plays a deadly game of chess against a new arch nemesis by the name of Professor James Moriarty, Jared Harris, just before World War I.

In this sequel to Sherlock Holmes, Downey brings his reluctant partner Dr. Watson, Jude Law, back into Holmes adventurous investigations - this time against Harris. Law is reluctant to get involved with Downey again because Law is getting married to Kelly Reilly. Although she does not get much screen time, charming Reilly appears to be a worthy wife to Law - especially in Downey's investigative world. The cameos by Rachel McAdams adds a sense of continuity to the first Sherlock Holmes movie.

A series of deadly events around the world has Downey somehow conclude that mastermind Harris is at the center of these events. Downey's investigations of Harris lead Downey and Law all across Europe with Harris one step ahead of them. Gypsy Noomi Rapace is the sister of a man who is integral to Harris's plans and joins Downey and Law in their pursuit of her brother and Harris amongst the rich and powerful.

I liked that fact that they had Sherlock Holmes smarter brother Mycroft Holmes, Stephen Fry, in the film. Although he was not portrayed as exceptionally smarter than Sherlock, Fry was more of an influential government official. Too bad that Fry did not have much more screen time, just slightly more than Reilly. The relationships between all the characters was very good, and you felt that Harris was an intellectual equal to Downey as an opponent. And both Downey's and Law's observations and deductive reasoning of forensic scenes were incredible. Law makes a very good partner for Downey. Downey's disguises were very good, especially his urban camouflage. I am not sure if the urban camouflage was special effects or really good camouflage as I could not tell where he was until he revealed himself. Director Guy Ritchie's slow-motion montages of various action scenes adds a sense of drama to otherwise typical action scenes. The credits were portrayed as if you were reading a book, as well as having the camera panning over excerpts of Doyle's books as Law writes about Downey's exploits. The film itself is full of excerpts of Doyle's books and leaves itself open to a sequel.

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations, and drug use. Running time: 129 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews