Red Tails (2012)
Average Rating: 5.3/10
Reviews Counted: 125
Fresh: 49 | Rotten: 76
Despite a worthy fact-based story and obvious good intentions, Red Tails suffers from one-dimensional characters, corny dialogue, and heaps of clichés.
Average Rating: 5/10
Critic Reviews: 30
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 23
Despite a worthy fact-based story and obvious good intentions, Red Tails suffers from one-dimensional characters, corny dialogue, and heaps of clichés.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 45,272
My Rating
Movie Info
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. -- (C) Official Site
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Cast
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Terrence Howard
Col. A.J. Bullard, Colo... -
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Major Emanuelle Stance,... -
Bryan Cranston
Colonel William Mortamu... -
Nate Parker
Marty "Easy" Julian, Ma... -
David Oyelowo
Joe "Lightning" Little,... -
Tristan Wilds
Ray "Junior" Gannon, Ra... -
Method Man
Sticks -
Lee Tergesen
Colonel Jack Tomlinson,... -
Ne-Yo
Andrew "Smokey" Salem, ... -
Elijah Kelley
Samuel "Joker" George, ... -
Andre Royo
Antwan "Coffee" Coleman... -
Kevin L. Phillips
Leon "Neon" Edwards -
Leslie Odom, Jr.
Declan "Winky" Hall -
Marcus T. Paulk
David "Deke" Watkins -
Michael B. Jordan
Maurice Wilson -
Lars Van Riesen
Pretty Boy
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Red Tails Trailer & Photos
All Critics (125) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (49) | Rotten (76) | DVD (6)
There's no sense of threat or danger: this is a film with its head stuck firmly in the clouds.
Top CriticSadly, Red Tails tells its inspiring story in the most old-fashioned, Saturday-afternoon-at-the-movies kind of way. The movie occasionally flies but it never soars.
This is so generic as storytelling that it fails even as a basic history lesson: it's hard to believe that the stock conflicts on-screen have any connection to real events.
One can get away with a lot of cornball speeches a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away but it doesn't work nearly as well a short time ago on planet Earth.
Red Tails is better than nothing - but "nothing" isn't the other option. That HBO film is still out there, and Red Tails doesn't add to it or improve upon it.
Instead of pride or anger or resolve, all it left me feeling was a little bit of regret that I hadn't been home, watching "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" instead.
The actors' convincing portrayals and realistic bond with each other, along with the spectacular visual and sound effects created by Lucas, makes Red Tails feel genuine and powerful.
With an inspiring source story, talented actors, and one of the most profitable production companies backing the film, it's genuinely hard to imagine where it all went wrong.
There certainly is an interesting story to be told at the heart of "Red Tails," but unfortunately director Anthony Hemingway and screenwriters John Ridley and Aaron McGruder couldn't get at it.
Red Tails is all broad strokes, and I have to admit that it stroked me good.
This is a proper war film. That's to say one with crazy dogfights and (no, really) Nazis with prominent scars.
The finished product makes a great case, perhaps the best yet filmed, for remaining anonymous and achieving nothing.
Why, one wonders, didn't Lucas persuade his friend Steven Spielberg to take on this subject and treat it with the authority and respect he brought to Band of Brothers?
The actors do their best, but the lines they have to deliver are toe-curlingly bad. Things get better when the planes are in the air, but the film's aerial dogfights are so blatantly computer-generated that the action fails to thrill.
What a missed opportunity.
While the film soars in the skies, on the ground there's nothing original in the script.
It's an inspirational story and its infectious sense of camaraderie may well be an effective recruitment film for the U.S. air force.
Executive producer George Lucas brings a healthy dose of his Star Wars magic to the CGI of the spectacular aerial sequences.
The true story of the Tuskegee Airmen, a squadron of African-American second world war flying aces, is one of those amazing tales that you just couldn't make up.
Red Tails is a war action buff's matinee delight. It could be argued that making a more gritty account would have detracted from the focus on the strong buddy element ...
It functions primarily as a reminder that Cuba Gooding Jr. is still alive and touting for work.
Red Tails has been described as "jingoistic, corny, über-patriotic and old-fashioned", not by some disobliging critic but by George Lucas, its executive producer.
Like many films honouring the memory of honourable minorities in the grim days before civil rights, this George Lucas-produced war epic is an insomnia cure.
The distilled essence of this story is surely of more long term value than what Britain's own Tony Scott and Tom Cruise were dealing with in Top Gun.
Disappointment gives way to frustration at this botched opportunity to tell an important story properly.
It's definitely a story worth telling.
Audience Reviews for Red Tails
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Col. A.J. Bullard: To be absolutely politically correct African Americans won the Battle of Britain and saved the World.
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- Pretty Boy: Oh my god....they are African.
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- Col. A.J. Bullard: The only respect I have is for the uniform.
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- Joe "Lightning" Little: I think I did get myself killed.
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- Col. A.J. Bullard: You get us the mission, we'll light up the board.
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- Joe 'Lightning' Little: From the last plane, to the last bullet, to the last minute, to the last man, we fight!
Discussion Forum
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Latest News on Red Tails
May 22, 2012:
RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Red Tails and This Means WarThis week on home video, we've got a smattering of commercial misfires and critical darlings, with a...
January 17, 2012:
George Lucas Is Ready to RetireHe talks about how tough it was to get "Red Tails" made, responds to irate "Star Wars" fans, and...
January 10, 2012:
George Lucas Envisions More Red Tails MoviesAs long as the box office receipts support them, of course.
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