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

WAR HORSE

Touchstone Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 146 Minutes



Click below to watch the War Horse trailer.



In Touchstone Pictures War Horse directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the children's book and stage production War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, Jeremy Irvine's horse Joey, whom Irvine has raised since Joey was a foal at their poor farm, is sold by his war veteran father Peter Mullan to the British cavalry at the start of World War I.

A combination of Black Beauty and Saving Private Ryan - the film is more about the horse Joey, than it is about the war as the film follows Joey and the various horse tending people Joey encounters on his various adventures. Due to the fortunes of war, Joey goes back and forth between both sides of the war. As a result of which, I cared about the various characters Joey encounters during the war - no matter which side you are on. Having the Germans speaking English throughout the movie was a little disconcerting to me and made it difficult for me to tell which side of the war Joey was on - as under battle conditions, everyone looks almost alike. I would have preferred to have read subtitles when the Germans were speaking, but from a commercial point of view it made sense as most of the audience would not like to read subtitles throughout half of the movie. Since the movie was mostly filmed in England, there were no American soldiers integrated into the British units throughout the war.

The uses of horse-ridden calvary was initially a surprise for me as I generally think of WWI as the beginning of mechanised warfare which was used by Great Briton and France with tanks. However WWI was a combination of using both 20th century technology and 19th century tactics. Thus, a calvary charge with swords - while a sound tactic in the 19th century, and effective with thousand pound horses bearing down on lightly armed men - is hopefully outclassed against a defensive line of machine guns. The use of horses hauling artillery was much more relatable to me as the German Army was ahead in the war in fielding heavy artillery.

The trench warfare of No Man's Land, while scary with the machine guns, is not as intense as the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan - probably because there is a distance in No Man's Land between the audience and the British troops as they go over-the-top of the protective trenches into the heavily machine gunned barbed-wire battlefield, as compared to the up close and personal battle scenes in Saving Private Ryan. One reason for why the distancing might be, may be due to the post-traumatic stress reaction war veterans had to watching the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan. Certainly, you saw no real graphic consequences of the battle - even with the use of poison gas in the trenches. Although with gas masks, chemical warfare was of limited use in the war anyway despite the stigma of the use of poison gas during the war.

The horses were definitely the stars in this movie as you definitely got acting and emotion out of these beautiful horses, even if they are animals. The horses, especially Joey, care for each other and they make for nice tear-jerker characters for the film.

At the end of the film, the audience applauded. A rare thing indeed, which makes me think War Horse will be a contender for an Oscar.

Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running Time: 146 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

HUGO

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 127 Minutes



In Paramount Pictures Hugo, Hugo Cabret, Asa Butterfield, is an orphan trying to survive as he makes his home amongst the tower clocks of a busy 1930's Parisian train station. While trying to survive in the train station community by stealing food from the station's dining establishments, as well as maintaining the complicated tower clocks that his drunken uncle had intrusted him to, Butterfield tries to repair an automaton that he has inherited from his dead father to find meaning in Butterfield's life.

Based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, this is a wonderful family movie about an orphaned boy whose life is intertwined with a magician toy booth owner at the train station, Ben Kingsley - who just happens to be filmmaker Georges Méliès.

With Butterfield being from a family of clock-makers, Butterfield steals intricate mechanism parts from Kingsley in order to fix the automaton Butterfield and his dad Jude Law discovered in a museum. Convinced the automaton contains a secret message from his late father Law, Butterfield is determined to fix the writing/drawing automaton to discover the message his father might have put in it. When Kingsley catches Butterfield stealing a mechanical mouse from him, Kingsley takes Butterfield's father's notebook from him. Determined to get the notebook back, Butterfield convinces Kingsley's goddaughter Chloë Grace Moretz - who loves a secret and is looking to have an adventure - to get Law's notebook back for him. Butterfield then realizes that Moretz's necklace key is the key that unlocks Butterfield's automaton.

This film is basically two movies, one of the children-oriented movie with orphan Butterfield living amongst the clock towers of the busy train station in the city of Paris - while he searches for parts to fix his drawing automaton. Butterfield also tries to keep out of the clutches of the orphaned lamed Station inspector Sacha Baron Cohen, who was wounded during World War 1, as well as keeping away from Cohen's dog. The other movie about Hugo is one of filmmaker Méliès as the children discover who Moretz's godfather really is. In fact the film very easily could have been called Georges, as the film spends such a great amount of time on Méliès life. What is great about a movie about Méliès is that Producer/Director Martin Scorsese actually had footage of Méliès films, especially of Méliès most famous film A Trip to the Moon.

I saw A Trip to the Moon years ago - but in black and white. Hugo actually used the hand-colored footage that was recently found in a barn in France in 2002, which makes those film clips of A Trip to the Moon even more magical with the film clips being hand-colored like that. Since Méliès was a stage magician, he pioneered the use of the practical stage special effects to use for his short films - as compared to the heavily detailed computer graphic effects of today. The opening shot was of a computer graphic zoom/dolly, which made me think that the movie was going to be a computer graphics movie instead of a live-action movie - until the shot stopped at a closeup of Butterfield. I especially felt the movie was going to be a computer graphics film after I had just seen the trailer for The Adventures of Tintin just before the movie Hugo began. When you compare a computer graphics shot like that opening shot of the movie - to the primitive effects Méliès used to do in his short films, it is awe-inspiring to see what kind of film magic Méliès used to do at the movie industry's infancy. Méliès was such a pioneer of the movie industry in his time, that he is regarded as "The Father of Special Effects."

Scorsese usually makes hard-core period piece ethnic New York films, so although a child fantasy-like film is more a style for Steven Spielberg rather than a Scorsese film, this being a period Parisian film in a crowded train station was up his alley as Scorsese deals with the period and the crowded train station. You can see Scorsese's idolism for film pioneer Georges Méliès.

This film was also shot in 3D and should be seen in 3D. As it was shot in 3D, the 3D effects are much more believable and impressive than a 2D film converted to 3D. There was a closeup of Kingsley at the end of the movie that I noticed that, instead of being a flat closeup shot with a telephoto lens usually done with a 2D film, the closeup was a 3D closeup of Kingsley's face. I normally do not notice closeups in 3D as they are usually flat. It makes me wish I paid more attention to the closeups in the rest of the movie to see if they were also in 3D. This is what a 3D film should look like, especially when shot by a filmmaker like Scorsese. Considering that this is Scorsese's first 3D film, the film is amazing. The various clockworks mechanisms shown throughout the film are especially graphic in 3D.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 127 Minutes.



Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

J. Edgar

Warner Bros.

Rated R

Running time: 137 Minutes



In the true story of Warner Bros. J. Edgar, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - J. Edgar Hoover, Leonardo DiCaprio, dictates his life's story to varous Federal agents.

Based on the true story of Hoover's life, and Directed and with Music by Clint Eastwood, this film is a very dramatic history of both J. Edgar and the FBI. It is amazing how much forensic proceedures J. Edgar developed in both library research and criminal science. These proceedures were very critical in the solving of the Charles Lindbergh baby kidnapping case. The film makes references to various criminal related cases the FBI was involved with, such as the notorious gangsters as well as the Charles Lindberg baby kidnapping. Throughout the 20th century, these cases of the FBI helped make J. Edgar a national hero. The private files J. Edgar supposedly kept of various political figures, including Presidents also made J. Edgar notorious and a person you did not want to make a political enemy of.

When a bomb explodes at the home of his boss, J. Edgar (DiCaprio) becomes driven throughout the rest of his life in dealing both with radical groups, as well as the subversives against America, and also in dealing in criminal science - such as having criminal's fingerprints being registered and centralized at the FBI. J. Edgar is soon made Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and has a career that lasts half a century and eight Presidents. The film goes back and forth between the mature characters of the present, and their younger selves. J. Edgar struggles in gaining respect for the Bureau, in that he has strict standards for his agents, getting proper jurisdiction and funding for the Bureau during Congressional Hearings - as well as getting loyalty and respect for himself. As a result, J. Edgar's biography "The Untitled FBI Story" is rather embellished with stories about J. Edgar.

The film also deals with J. Edgar's relationship with his mother Judi Dench, and his "daffodil" relationship with agent Clyde Tolson, Armie Hammer. While I knew of this relationship from various studies, the relationship was subtly played in the movie. Although it is interesting J. Edgar originally wanted a relationship with his new secretary Helen Gandy, Naomi Watts. However Watts only wanted a business relationship with J. Edgar. As a result, J. Edgar becomes uncomfortable with girls, and has a different relationship - although the FBI continues to deny any such portrayals of J. Edgar. It is ironic of having Armie Hammer in the movie when Armie Hammer's great-grandfather, tycoon Armand Hammer, was suspected by J. Edgar Hoover of having Soviet ties.

There was definitely an older crowd for this movie in the theaters. I am not sure if that is because of Clint Eastwood, or that the older crowd is more familiar with J. Edgar Hoover. Most probably it is because of the relationship the older crowd has with J. Edgar despite the star power of Leonardo DiCaprio. J. Edgar was the reason I saw the movie. I would not be surprised if DiCaprio is nominated for an Oscar for his performance in this movie.

Rated R for langauge, violence, and sexual situations. Running time: 137 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

TOWER HEIST

Universal Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 104 Minutes



In Universal Pictures Tower Heist, Ben Stiller is the building manager of a large hotel tower when he realizes that the tower's richest tenant Alan Alda, who Stiller has investing the employee's pension, has not only defrauded his clients money - but has defrauded their own employee pension as well. Feeling guilty for what he did in trusting Alda, Stiller wants to make things right - by stealing $20 million dollars from Alda.

In a cross between Die Hard, Horrible Bosses, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, this is a cute action comedy of a tower heist, of which the tower was really Trump Tower in the movie. In the ultimate Upstairs, Downstairs situation, Stiller recruits his fellow staff members - concierge Casey Affleck, elevator operator Michael Peña, housekeeper Gabourey Sidibe and evicted tenant Matthew Broderick to make the heist of Alda's safe up in the penthouse suite. Realizing they do not know how to steal, Stiller then bails out his neighborhood thief Eddie Murphy to teach them all how to steal. Planning the heist soon becomes difficult as Stiller develops a relationship with FBI agent Téa Leoni, who is in charge of Alda's incarceration.

I liked the fact that Stiller and the others timed the heist with the Macy's Day Parade. It was great to see a cameo of Matt Lauer as part of the Parade. While having what is supposedly Steve McQueen's car in the movie was cool - what was even better was what they did with McQueen's car. A cameo by Victoria's Secret supermodel Kate Upton as Mr. Hightower's mistress is also cool. I would have liked to have seen more of the residents in the tower, as well as more of the security arrangements in the movie - given that they are about to pull off a heist, how are they going to get past those? What I do not like about the film is that you do not know what happened to Eddie Murphy at the very end of the movie. I was expecting the last shot to be of Murphy since they did not resolve his character like they did all of the other characters in the movie.

Rated PG-13 for language and violence. Running time: 104 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews