Red Tails (2012)
Critic Reviews
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75
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New York Post Lou Lumenick
A well-acted, well-directed (by TV veteran Anthony Hemingway) popcorn movie with great aerial battles and solid dramatic scenes that hold your attention for two good hours.
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75
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch Kevin C. Johnson
Overreaching fits of melodrama, occasionally stilted dialogue, and performances by Gooding Jr. and Howard that are mostly a series of serious faces can't keep the shiny Red Tails from taking flight.
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67
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Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
As long as it stays in the air, Red Tails is a compelling sky-war pageant of a movie. On the ground, it's a far shakier experience: dutiful and prosaic, with thinly scripted episodes that don't add up to a satisfying story.
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63
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USA Today Claudia Puig
David Oyelowo stands out as the daredevil Joe "Lightning" Little, the unit's best flier. With his bravery and bravado, he's the film's most complex character.
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63
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Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
There isn't a real, flesh-and-blood figure in the bunch. Everything about Red Tails - the breaking down of racial barriers, the military achievements, the courage and sacrifice - is diminished in the process.
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60
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Movieline Stephanie Zacharek
In the end Red Tails is mostly about the coolness of flying. Its heart is in the clouds, instead of with the men at the controls.
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50
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Rolling Stone Peter Travers
You leave Red Tails thinking of what might have been instead of what is - a missed opportunity.
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50
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The Hollywood Reporter Todd McCarthy
Every character here is so squeaky-clean, and the prejudice as depicted is so toothless and easily overcome, that the film feels like a gingerly fantasy version of what, in real life, was an exceptional example of resilient trail-blazing.
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40
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Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
One could argue that the target audience - black teenagers, Mr. Lucas has said - might be most receptive to a film that conveys history through contemporary entertainment. But this isn't contemporary entertainment, it's antiquated kitsch reprocessed by the producer's nostalgia for the movies of his boyhood. The story has been stripped of historical context - don't black teenagers and everyone else deserve hard facts? - and internal logic.
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40
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New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
George Lucas produced this candy-coated, fictionalized drama, and while its cast is first-rate and its flying sequences sharp, the movie is as glazed and wide-eyed as a 70-year-old comic book.
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25
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San Francisco Chronicle Amy Biancolli
What's missing is any hint of realism. There's no grit to it anywhere.
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