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Red Tails (2012)
Embarrassed for the real Tuskegee Airmen
I'm embarrassed. Embarrassed for the real Tuskegee airmen and all other American pilots, embarrassed for the men who designed the real P-40, P- 51 and B-17, embarrassed for everyone who has ever been involved in making a good movie, embarrassed for myself in having looked up George Lucas as a kid. Let's start with the real Tuskegee airmen. I've met several of them at air shows and other aviation events over the years. They were intelligent, articulate, proud men. You knew you were in the presence of elder statesmen, American heroes, and men certainly deserving of more than this. And where in the hell was Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. in the movie? How can you make movie about these guys without the commanding officer, and first, most famous, of the Tuskegee Airmen? Maybe the script was shown to his family and the said 'no way are you making him part of this piece of junk'. One can only hope that's the reason. The aerial/technical aspects have been gone over many times by other reviewers, so I won't beat a dead horse, but I gotta say, a P-40 doing a full loop within it's own length...good God. Anyway, watch 'Tuskegee Airmen' instead. Much better movie.
GP506 (2008)
Pretty Good
Pros: -Well acted. Many actors in military-themed movies do not do a good job of being believable soldiers. Being former military, it's important for me to believe that the characters really act like guys in the military, even when they are just hanging around. These guys did a pretty good job. Let it be known, however, Koreans soldiers seem to be much more comfortable around each other in the shower than Americans do. I can't even imagine what would have happened in the American military if one guy would have asked another to wash his back in a open-bay shower. -Cinematography is pretty clean through most of the movie. Nice, sharp shots, good angles, etc. -Easy to get into the story line. Can quickly pick out who you would like to see prevail, though this may change. No one is really a bad guy or a good guy, just normal people trying to deal with a crappy situation in their own way. -Had never seen a Korean flick before, and I dug it. -If you like Mexican standoffs, this will become you're favorite movie, as they are numerous, long, and none end in a draw.
Cons: -The subtitles often don't show a complete statement. This happens often. Example, 'Remember that time we saw that...' and that's it, no more words in the subtitle. You know the actor finished the line in Korean, because the other in guy in the scene may say 'Yeah, I remember that'. -As other reviews on here mention, does get confusing at times as the time line shifts and the same scenes are reflected back upon, but the character is remembering events in different ways as the disease changes his perspective. I understand the reason for all this, but the unevenness of how it was applied hurt my head at times. -If you don't like Mexican standoffs, you won't like a third of this movie.
That's about it. The pros outweighed the cons. Not a 'must see' but certainly a 'worth seeing' if this is you're genre.
Iron Sky (2012)
Loved it until the last 5 minutes
For most of this movie, I found myself thinking that it was pulled straight from a checklist of what my own personal best fantasy movie would be. Until the dark, unfunny, serious, sad and depressing ending. It's not that a sad ending normally bothers me. In fact, that can be very refreshing in the right kind of movie. This, however, was a funny, visually exciting, purposely unrealistic film about MOON Nazis INVADING THE EARTH. Why it turned into a political manifesto in the last five minutes is beyond me. As an American, I really don't have a problem with American politics being made fun of in a movie, politics should and need to be made fun of, which was done, and done well, throughout the film. The end, however, went well beyond that. All of a sudden, and without warning, the surviving Nazis were to be sympathized with, and the Americans were busy initiating nuclear holocaust. If that's a movie one wants to make, fine, but the tone and subject matter just seemed so out of step with the rest of the movie. It was if it were the last five minutes of a different movie. Still worth watching, I guess.
Beneath Hill 60 (2010)
Most believable war movie I've seen in a long time.
First of all, I'd like to address the large number of reviews that mention Americans haven't seen/wouldn't't be interested in this film. There seems to be an assumption that Americans aren't interested in war films that don't feature Americans. Not sure where this is coming from, but I've never found that to be the case. Americans who like war movies, like war movies. Almost everyone I know has seen 'Gallipoli', 'The Odd Angry Shot', 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence', 'Mad Max' (OK, not a real 'war' movie, but just sayin'), in addition to many of the great British and German-made films. The issue isn't with interest, it's with distribution. If studios and theater owners don't think they'll make a zillion dollars by showing a movie, we don't get to see it unless it turns up on cable or Netflix. OK, I'll step off my tree-stump now and review this fine movie.
WW1 certainly does not get the film-making attention it should, so to find one that's this excellent makes up for this a little bit. I was drawn in and kept there by the fine acting, attention to detail, and fluidity of story telling. In any war flick, I'm always waiting for that cheesy moment that breaks the rhythm and steals the credibility of the scene. Usually a 'why we fight' type of speech that you know never would have happened; soldiers fight to keep themselves and their buddies alive, and don't need any other reason. That type of dialog is obvious, useless, and clearly just there for the audience, and not for the benefit of the characters or story. None of that puffiness or foolishness here. Also, it wasn't one of those war films that was made just so someone could put it one their resume', or show off their special-effects prowess. It is first and foremost a great story about real characters and events. I got the feeling that everyone involved in making this film truly cared for what these men went through and brought their best effort as a way to honor that. As much as I like movies about the well-know people, places and events that took place in war, movies that give this much attention to the lesser-known stories can be a much more fulfilling experience. If done right, these types of movies can make the events much more personal and bring you uncomfortably close to the realities of war, which is what war movies should be doing. 'Beneath Hill 60' does this in spades, and this American appreciated every minute of it.
The Terminators (2009)
Not much more I can add
Since I can't really add anything new or different to what others have written (basically, any review with score of 2 stars or less I'm in agreement with), I decided to add to the list of films Asylum should consider making:
Battlestar Galaxia; Star Track, The Motion Movie; Star War IV, A New Hopefulness; Star War V, The Empire Stages a Counter-offensive; Star War VI, The Jedi Comes Back; Babylon 6; Lightning Bug; The Twilight Area
Maybe they should get into historical dramas:
Approximately 300; The Passion of the Jesus; Troys; Inglorious Soldiers Who Never Knew Their Fathers; Spartacusus; Saving Corporal Ryan