One longs for more scenes between the ensemble on the ground, but the emphasis on aerial (and digital) technology leaves the characters without context.

| Nov 5, 2013

This is a proper war film. That's to say one with crazy dogfights and (no, really) Nazis with prominent scars.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 11, 2012

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.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 7, 2012

Red Tails has been described as "jingoistic, corny, ber-patriotic and old-fashioned", not by some disobliging critic but by George Lucas, its executive producer.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 7, 2012

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.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 7, 2012

Disappointment gives way to frustration at this botched opportunity to tell an important story properly.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jun 6, 2012

There's no sense of threat or danger: this is a film with its head stuck firmly in the clouds.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 6, 2012

This has great action, an affable cast and an inspirational story. But given its subject, it could have been so much more.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 3, 2012

Sadly, 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.

| Mar 2, 2012

Good intentions only get you so far, and while producer George Lucas' heart is in the right place that doesn't make his WWII aerial extravaganza Red Tails any less of a disappointment.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 27, 2012

It was a pretty fair movie (save for the weird zooming camera work that's become a trend-your movie feels dated five minutes after release).

| Jan 27, 2012

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.

| Jan 23, 2012

It has the best of intentions, an excellent cast, and thrilling battle footage. But the scenes on the ground are clunky.

| Original Score: B | Jan 23, 2012

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.

| Original Score: C | Jan 21, 2012

The story of the Tuskegee Airmen is one that every American should know, and deserving of a great film; unfortunately, this isn't it.

| Original Score: 2.0 | Jan 20, 2012

Where Spielberg has made WWII a venue for his sanctimonious side, a platform to convince viewers that war is indeed hell, Lucas is still in a state of pre-adolescent fascination with the conflict.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 20, 2012

Two hours go by fast and don't leave you fuming for having wasted your time, rather feeling nothing at all - minus an overwhelming urge to slap that pipe from Gooding Jr.'s mouth.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 20, 2012

The battle scenes soar, thanks to top-notch and thrilling special effects. Quieter scenes give characters added dimension, such as those that address one officer's drinking problem.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 20, 2012

Red Tails is a lousy film. Not wincingly bad, mind you, just mediocre.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jan 20, 2012

The Tuskegee Airmen were serious heroes, on a number of levels. They deserve a serious movie. "Red Tails" is not that movie.

| Original Score: C- | Jan 20, 2012