Red Tails

Red Tails, a movie that portrayed the lives of the Tuskegee Airmen as they fought for their rightful place in the sky to be amongst other pilots as America went to war with German in 1940.  The film was aligned with stars such as Cuba Gooding Jr. (The Hit List, American Gangster, Daddy Day Camp), Terrence Howard (Law & Order: LA, Iron Man, Pride), Nate Parker (The Secret Life of Bees, The Great Debaters, Pride), & David Oyelowo ( Rise of The Planet of the Apes, A Raisin in the Sun, The Last King of Scotland). You would think with such talent in this film it would be a hit. Not so. I was counting the second until I saw the ending credits of this film. If it wasn't the horribly  thick portrayal of country accents, It was Goodings role as Major Emanuelle Stance that put you in the mind frame of Robert De Niro role as Master Chief Billy Sunday from Men of Honor, (I just wanted to break that pipe) and if that didn't do it for you it was Shaffer Smith (Ne-Yo) accent that made him sound like an old country man  they would call Cookie from those old westerns. Of course the only thing to out shine the bad accents was the bad and out dated dialogue. For there to be so many actors with great accomplishments under their belts they all came across as new actors and this was their first big role. There was even a scene where Ne-Yo told a White Pilot " When you cold, you Blue, When you scared, you Yellow, When you sick, you Green, and you have the nerve to call us colored". I heard that joke from one of Richard Pryor stand ups. I doubt that joke was that old for one of the Tuskegee airmen to be using it in a bar in 1940.But aside from all of that you would think a movie that had a budget of $58 million dollars you could afford more than two women; Daniela Ruah (NCIS: Los Angeles) who played Sofia and Tina D'Marco who played Sofia's mother. Oh and Tears. Yes, tears. There were more than a couple of scenes where you would have thought the actors could had shown a hint of emotion, but never the less every eye stayed dry. Not even a single GLORY tear.  But all is not lost...for Nate Parker who played the role of Marty 'Easy' Julian, this was his entry into Hollywood as a man. Forget the fact that his character looked like Denzel Washington from Malcolm X,  this role is a far separation from his last films and I believe we haven't seen the last of him yet. For his sake and ours I hope that is true.

I grade this movie: Rent It