REVIEW: "Red Tails"

[Rachel Galvin]

Okay, here is a very personalized (and harsh) review, which is rare for me, but I had to write down my visceral immediate reaction to this film.

I have to say I really did not like "Red Tails" but I love the fact it was made. It has historical importance and it is a great lesson for youth. But, unfortunately, it had a lot of issues. I found it contrived, predictable and often boring. Even the opening sequence did not draw me in, but looked amateurish.

The introduction of the characters was canned with funny one-liners that took away from the reality of the setting. The one-liners kept coming throughout and there were a few funny scenes. But somehow, I didn't care about these characters much, although it did get better later in the film. But death scenes were tortuous to watch and drawn out way too long.

In fact, everything was over talked and drawn out way too long. A plot point would happen and two people would talk about it and then one of the characters would go say almost the same thing again to someone else. Action scenes that were good once were shown again via projector to the troops... scenes we already saw in color and did not need to see again in black and white.

People around me were restless, yawning. The person next to me was holding his head as if in pain. I got up in the middle to go to the bathroom and walk around. That is how uninterested I was!

The acting even from seasoned actors was inconsistent and sometimes just laughably bad as if read poorly from a teleprompter. It was hard to believe George Lucas was involved with this. Even the sound seemed off, as if it was poorly ADR'd. The romance seemed far-fetched, although since I speak Italian, I understood the lines (which were not subtitled) and was in on some of the jokes, which many were not.

Yet, there were others who seemed to love the film, especially the African Americans in the audience, and couldn't wait to tell their friends. Two of my friends, one a fellow critic, the other a cinephile, agreed with me. One friend said he even hated the music!

Meanwhile, another critic friend had the opposite to say, so it is all subjective. This is just my opinion. I hope the director learns from this film and does make more movies, but just better!