Red Tails

I went to see Red Tails because I wanted to support George Lucas in his endeavor to bring this movie to the screen. I had to go to a late screening, something I don't do much these days, because it was only being shown once a day - late.  Every movie theatre in our area was the same. One screening late in the day. This is an area where there are a lot of pensioners - me included and we don't go out that late, especially when the weather is not good and there is snow on the ground. Anyway, a friend and I went. I was thrilled to be able to go to the movies again and be able to sit through the movie quite OK.
Now onto the movie. I was disappointed in the movie. Although the action scenes are good something was lacking. Both my friend and I did not like Cuba Gooding Jr's pipe. We thought it totally took away. It's like it dominated rather than the script and you always noticed it, it was out of place, out of character and talking about characters, they all seemed 'over the top' somehow. I thought maybe it was 'culture'. I understand the 'black' culture is different from 'white culture'. Just as 'deaf' culture is different from 'hearing' culture. But I would have liked more authentic normalcy among the pilots.
Over the years I have seen a lot of war movies and this one misses the mark. Sad when 'Lightening' gets killed - yes, he seemed to dominate (and I have no idea which one of the names of the black actors was him) but he was good in his role. They were for the most part OK - not great but OK.
So bottom line, something was missing in this movie. I'm not sure who wrote it but they missed something. I remember the TV movie and it was good. This wasn't. But is it worth seeing. Yes it is worth seeing, especially if you want to support George Lucas in saying a 'Black' movie is worth producing.
3 out of 5 stars (the dog fights were worth a star).