Kwam's Rant: "Red Tails": Crash and Burn?

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

"Red Tails": Crash and Burn?

I had high hopes for “Red Tails.” I really did.

FINALLY, the Tuskegee Airmen would get more than an HBO movie. We’d see what a big contribution the Red Tail squadron made, protecting bombers in Europe while battling racism.

George Lucas producing and doing effects? YESSSSS.

Terence Howard? Cuba Gooding, Jr? Yesssss. He’d already BEEN in the pretty good HBO version, so he could improve on it!

Ne-Yo? Uh-oh.

As a (relatively) young black man, I wanted this movie to be great. I wanted it to be like “Band of Brothers”… for brothers. Unfortunately, this movie made me reconsider my “meh” review of Spike Lee’s “Miracle at St. Anna.”

I won’t get into a long review, but here are my take-aways:

Lucas’ influence was CLEARLY felt. The dogfighting scenes – hell, all the scenes with a plane in them, were gorgeous and impressive on the big screen.
But, Lucas’ influence was clearly felt. I don’t know how involved he was with the writing and directing but DAMN, this was worse than “Mannequin Skywalker” in “The Phantom Menace.” I mean, I knew Lucas felt bad about making Jar-Jar some kind of drunk Jamaican or something, but there were scenes where even my 8-year-old turned to me and said “this is horrible acting.”
It’s sad when some of the most memorable acting came from Ne-Yo, the pop hit writer/singer.
They blew through everything – hey, there’s a stereotypical racist general! Whoa, was that Beecher from “Oz?” How in the hell does Howard outrank Gooding? Maurice died! Who’s Maurice again?
The writing was horrible. I’m no screenwriter, and I respect the craft. But I was convinced I could have done a better job with the script. Characters were one-dimensional (Cuba Gooding. Jr. played a “guy with a pipe”); dialogue was stilted (“I sure hope these “Red Tails” escort us next time!); and the story seemed JUST threaded together enough to get us to the next flight scene.