RED TAILS [BLU-RAY] (2012)




SYNOPSIS: Academy Awardr Winner Cuba Gooding Jr.* and Academy Awardr Nominee Terrence Howard** lead a powerful ensemble cast in this high-flying epic inspired by the real-life adventures of the first African-American combat unit to serve in World War II. Italy, 1944. As the war takes its toll on Allied forces in Europe, a squadron of black pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen are finally given the chance to prove themselves in the sky...even as they battle discrimination on the ground. Featuring jaw-dropping aerial action and thrilling special effects, Red Tails is a breathtaking tribute to the unsung heroes who rose above extraordinary challenges and ultimately soared into history.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Before he hand over his entire empire to Disney, George Lucas finally realized his pet project of over 20 years marking it the official last release from his Lucasfilm outfit after Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2008. 

Directed by TV director Anthony Hemingway (The Wire) and produced by Lucas, Red Tails recounts the little known heroic tale of the Tuskegee Airmen. In short, it’s the first combat unit, which consists of solely African-American, recruited to fight in World War II as pilots.

It’s a difficult time whereby bigotry against black is common practice. Red Tails attempts to bring this subject to the masses, setting out to honor those great heroes. In a way, Lucas and gang have succeeded. The war drama is adequate and as Lucas himself puts it, an old-fashioned corny story. We have a down-to-earth leader of the squad, “Easy” (Nate Parker), a rebellious “Lightning” (David Oyelowo) who falls in love with a local Italian girl, the youngest of the lot, “Junior” (Tristan Wilds), a newbie named Maurice (Michael B Jordan) and singer “Smokey” (Ne-Yo).

The generic, nameless Nazis baddies aside, this whole bunch of characters while lacking in definition and dimension rises to the occasion because of the stellar performances by the relatively unknown cast. The two biggest names here belongs to Terrence Howard and Academy Award winner turned straight-to-video star Cuba Gooding Jr who plays Colonel Bullard and Major Stance respectively while Breaking Bad Bryan Cranston turned in a two days work as a racist Colonel William Mortamus.

The script by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder is strictly by the numbers. The narrative hardly thrills despite its best intention to showcase this important event. Fortunately, the numerous aerial battles and dogfights make up for the flawed storytelling especially when you have ILM supervising all the digital effects and stunts. If you are still crazy about all the planes swopping and swerving in Pearl Harbor and Flyboys then the ferocious battles in Red Tails is going to be far more impressive than you think.

Red Tails is a mediocre war movie after all considering its Lucas who is behind the project. While he might have lost his filmmaking mojo after the lackluster Star Wars prequels, at the minimum, you should thank the bearded one for putting in his own money into the production though to put it bluntly those decades of Star Wars royalties have already covered it in the first place.    

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Double Victory: The Tuskegee Airmen at War 

is an hour long documentary on the real Tuskegee Airmen who fought in WWII.

The bearded one talks about how this project has been ongoing for the past 20 years in George Lucas: Executive Producer

Another short conversant piece on how The Wired director landed the job in Anthony Hemingway: Director


The composer shares his feelings about the score in Terence Blanchard: Composer


A 25 minutes feature that consist of brief interview with every main cast members such as Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr, David Oyelowo and Nate Parker in The Cast of Red Tails.

Watch how the power of visual effects bring to life the aerial fights and set extension in Movie Magic.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

It’s a Lucasfilm production so just sit back and let the outstanding audio and visual impressed you. The imaging details are amazing and the DTS-HD soundtrack simply rock and boom.

MOVIE RATING:



DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee


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 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Action/War
Director: 
Anthony Hemingway
Cast: Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bryan Cranston, Tristan Wilds, Nate Parker, Method Man, Evan Ross, Daniela Ruah, Ne-Yo, Jazmine Sullivan, David Oyelowo, Lee Tergesen, Gerald McRaney, Elijah Kelley, Josh Dallas, Jaime King, Michael B. Jordan
Rating: PG13 (Some War Violence)
Year Made: 2012

 SPECIAL FEATURES

Double Victory: The Tuskegee Airmen at War
- George Lucas: Executive Producer
- Anthony Hemingway: Director
- Terence Blanchard: Composer
- The Cast of Red Tails
- Movie Magic

 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: English/Spanish/French
Subtitles: English/Spanish
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Sound: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Running Time: 2 hrs 5 mins
Region Code: 1