When I saw it was an air combat film produced by LucasFilm, I figured it was gonna be a Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe movie

1/7/2012 9:20:23 PM

This will be an epic failure at the box office.

1/7/2012 10:46:22 PM

One of the commercials they're airing for this movie is set to a dubstep song, which is really fucking stupid and incongruous.

1/7/2012 10:55:11 PM

^ No more than a movie about Ancient Rome set to, well, basically any music genre we have currently.

1/7/2012 11:51:37 PM

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My biggest beef with this film is the over done and over the top CGI air combat scenes, and how utterly unrealistic they are depicted. The air combat scenes just look too much like an over the top arcade style air combat video game, and in no way look like actual WWII air combat footage. Some of the scenes in the preview show aerial maneuvers and aerial gunnery that defy any semblance of reality, and just look plain stupid. I understand artistic liberty, but good damn try to stay within the plausible realm of what was possible with .50 caliber machine guns and a gyro / reflector sight.

1/8/2012 1:35:50 AM

But they are BLACK pilots, dawg

1/8/2012 7:28:59 AM

Exactly. You have to account for swagger.

1/8/2012 9:45:49 AM

Ne-Yo is in it; I'm sure its awesome.

1/8/2012 2:37:42 PM

The one scene in the previews that kills me, more than any of the other bullshit, is the scene where they show a P51 shooting down an Me262. The guy pulls a loop, then while in an inverted dive fires a burst at a 262 flying beneath him and hits it. Thats some crazy skilled deflection shooting there, seeing as how you wouldnt even be able to SEE the target from that angle until it passed under you and was directly perpendicular to you, at which time firing would be pointless because from that angle you would miss the target and your rounds would hit behind the target due to the forward speed of the target. Deflection shooting means you need to shoot where the target will be, not where it is. From that angle if hes shooting at it when he sees it, its already too late and a waste of ammo because he didnt lead the shot. To lead the shot correctly he would have had to have shot when he couldnt even SEE the target, in order for the rounds to hit where the target was GOING TO BE. Seeing as how WWII fighters on average carried about 30 seconds worth of ammo, no skilled fighter pilot would shoot at something he couldnt see and waste ammo. It is also why pilots would rather maneuver to get directly behind a target and fire straight into it as opposed to a deflection shot, not to say skilled pilots couldnt score deflection hits, but a direct rear shot has a higher probability for a kill.


Yeah Im a pilot and being critical, but historical realism is important to me.

[Edited on January 8, 2012 at 3:16 PM. Reason : .]

1/8/2012 3:13:43 PM

I saw it the first time when it was called The Tuskegee Airmen

1/8/2012 3:20:33 PM

^ that was a good movie

1/8/2012 4:00:38 PM

Yeah, but this one has Cuba Gooding, Jr.

wait...

1/8/2012 5:31:23 PM

It's a movie, infinite ammo engage!

1/8/2012 7:00:52 PM

Quote :

"Deflection shooting means you need to shoot where the target will be, not where it is. "

Increase Speed! Drop Down! Reverse Direction!

1/8/2012 7:32:18 PM

Cuba Gooding and Terrance Howard are in this? They are both from the Overacting Negro Ensemble. I think I'll pass.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/the-overacting-negro-ensemble/274515

[Edited on January 8, 2012 at 9:22 PM. Reason : 2]

1/8/2012 9:22:17 PM

This looks terrible and is a dishonor to the Tuskegee Airmen (if that's what it's supposed to be about).

1/8/2012 9:37:21 PM

Just in time for Blacks History Month

1/9/2012 7:39:53 AM

red baron 22, lol I bet you loved that movie "Flyboys" from a few years ago. That film also featured all sorts of crazy aerobatic nonsense, only in that case we are led to believe they did back in World War I when their planes were made out of toothpicks and paper.

1/9/2012 8:34:13 AM

Good to see Cuba get some work.

1/9/2012 9:08:27 AM

oh shit, this movie has Radio in it?

sweet.

1/9/2012 10:03:01 AM

he's red baron. he knows a thing or two about planes.

1/9/2012 11:02:28 AM

Quote :

"TAKE DAT, MISTUH HITLAH!"

1/9/2012 1:25:18 PM

Some of the best air combat in a movie i think still belongs to The Blue Max.

1/9/2012 1:50:42 PM

I remember that movie Flyboys.

I also remember walking out in the middle of it.

1/9/2012 2:33:33 PM

*Spoiler Alert*


































I hear Porkins is making a cameo. He's playing a retired chef or something.

1/9/2012 2:35:55 PM

Quote :

"The one scene in the previews that kills me, more than any of the other bullshit, is the scene where they show a P51 shooting down an Me262. The guy pulls a loop, then while in an inverted dive fires a burst at a 262 flying beneath him and hits it. Thats some crazy skilled deflection shooting there, seeing as how you wouldnt even be able to SEE the target from that angle until it passed under you and was directly perpendicular to you, at which time firing would be pointless because from that angle you would miss the target and your rounds would hit behind the target due to the forward speed of the target. Deflection shooting means you need to shoot where the target will be, not where it is. From that angle if hes shooting at it when he sees it, its already too late and a waste of ammo because he didnt lead the shot. To lead the shot correctly he would have had to have shot when he couldnt even SEE the target, in order for the rounds to hit where the target was GOING TO BE. Seeing as how WWII fighters on average carried about 30 seconds worth of ammo, no skilled fighter pilot would shoot at something he couldnt see and waste ammo. It is also why pilots would rather maneuver to get directly behind a target and fire straight into it as opposed to a deflection shot, not to say skilled pilots couldnt score deflection hits, but a direct rear shot has a higher probability for a kill. Yeah Im a pilot and being critical, but historical realism is important to me. "

                         /

1/9/2012 2:54:08 PM

Quote :

"red baron 22, lol I bet you loved that movie "Flyboys" from a few years ago. That film also featured all sorts of crazy aerobatic nonsense, only in that case we are led to believe they did back in World War I when their planes were made out of toothpicks and paper."

That movie was pure shit, I of course sat through it because I am a glutton for airplane movies. I love how the only German plane in that movie was the Fokker DR-1 triplanes, all painted red, like the only German planes in WWI were the Red Barons triplanes. Hell the Fokker DR-1 wasnt even a widely used plane in the war, earlier versions of Fokkers and Albatrosses were far more common.

They were also pulling maneuvers in those planes which could have snapped or twisted the wing struts or wings off. That was a huge problem in WWI, many pilots were killed due to structural damage on the planes caused by G forces during extreme dives, turns or loops.

Oh, and on Red Tails, I rewatched the trailer, and it appears the scene I was talking about was actually an Me109 not a Me262 jet fighter. Although I bet they do the same thing Flyboys did, and have damn near every German fighter a jet, with like hordes and hordes of jet fighters despite the fact that they saw very limited service at a time when the war was pretty much decided.

Quote :

"he's red baron. he knows a thing or two about planes."

Im an airplane nerd what can I say...NCSU areospace

1/9/2012 3:55:29 PM

i'm interested to see how this does at the box office.

i'm also interested to see how the mall culture of young african americans take to this film. a film of historic content (albeit heavily senationalized) doesn't seem like something the friday night loitering crowd would patronize. will african americans see it? or will they wait for soul plane 2?

1/9/2012 4:02:30 PM

but it's pitched in tone and demeanor like a sports movie IMO

1/9/2012 4:08:13 PM

preview reminds me of Biker Boys

1/9/2012 4:35:32 PM

Just say black people

1/9/2012 5:21:42 PM

if Tom Arnold isn't in the movie as a racist then I'm not interested

1/9/2012 5:26:18 PM

I'll be there opening night.


Top Gun is still the best air combat movie. just sayin...

[Edited on January 9, 2012 at 5:42 PM. Reason : ya]

1/9/2012 5:42:30 PM

Iron Eagle was pretty dope

too bad every single sequel got exponentially worse

though in the 2nd one (iirc) where they team up with the Russians, its funny when they're playing basketball on the aircraft carrier, and the ball goes out of bounds and lands near one of the Russian dudes, and the American guy is like "shoot the ball" so the Russian shoots the ball, with his pistol

1/9/2012 5:44:53 PM

I'm interested in seeing what dialect is used..

1/9/2012 6:41:59 PM

Quote :

"Top Gun is still the best air combat movie. just sayin..."

Top Gun blows, its a chick flick pretending to be a guys movie because it has jets in it.

The old movie Battle of Britain was done pretty well, as was Memphis Belle. Also Tora Tora Tora is pretty good.

Iron Eagle is fucking awesome in a totally cheesy, campy, crappy 80s way.

1/9/2012 6:54:29 PM

Quote :

"Top Gun blows, its a chick flick pretending to be a guys movie because it has jets in it."

red baron 22 credibility watch.

1/9/2012 10:09:03 PM

Prove how that statement is incorrect. I present to you exhibit A: The volleyball scene

1/9/2012 11:12:09 PM

one overdone volleyball scene and you discredit the movie?


Top Gun was probably one of if not the best recruiting tools for the Navy.


Memphis Belle and Tora Tora Tora I will give you also.

1/10/2012 3:53:18 AM

Is this the prequel to Soul Plane?

1/10/2012 6:50:13 AM

Top Gun makes me want to scream. How many times does the same plane fire the same missile off of the same pylon? That drove me insane.

Loved Memphis Belle and Tora Tora Tora, though.

1/10/2012 8:05:08 AM

Quote :

"preview reminds me of Biker Boys "

I'm pretty sure this the win, right here.


also, fuck this movie - let's take the tuskegee airmen theme, throw in a little Hustle & Flow and slap some CGI on it too.

1/10/2012 9:20:40 AM

Memphis Belle did more with scale models and a few real planes than all the CGI crap in Red Tails.

1/10/2012 1:14:21 PM

I love how this is red baron 22's trigger. I always kinda thought he might have named himself after the pizza.

1/10/2012 1:23:01 PM

Tyler Perry's Pearl Harbor

1/10/2012 1:31:23 PM

i want red baron 22 and richthofen to fight to the death.

1/10/2012 1:56:01 PM

nick saban saw it and said it was good

so there's that

1/10/2012 1:56:04 PM

So I re-watched a bunch of the air combat scenes in Memphis Belle again, and they are really damn good. They still hold up today, and look far better than any of the CGI crap in the Red Tails preview. The scenes in Red Tails look fake not only because of the CGI, but also because the speed and hyper video game nature which the planes are zipping around. Memphis Belle looks far more realistic in the way the planes maneuver, and move relative to each other....ie slower. Slower may not look as cool to some dip shit new age director, but its far more realistic. These planes were really only moving around 250-350mph in general, not mach 5.

Imagine a WWII air combat scene as you driving on the highway. Your in the middle of the action, and all the others cars are around you at various speeds moving, passing etc. Since everyone is moving at relatively similar speeds, the action is not moving at warp speed. To the driver, everything is moving at a normal pace. A car passing a truck may zip by it quickly, but its still not going appear as a blur to the truck driver.

To a bomber crew watching fighters dive in at them 100mph faster than they are moving, yes the fighters are moving faster but they still dont zip by in a cartoonesque video game way. They almost approach in slow motion from a distance, and may only "zip" by when they pass by one persons vantage point.

Memphis Belle got it right because the pace of the combat felt accurate, and the planes maneuvered in a realistic way relative to each other. Granted they used real planes and scale models, but they got it right. Red Tails combat scenes just look too over the top and retarded (Fly Boys), and a very unrealistic portrayal of WWII air combat. Also the claustrophobic nature of the Memphis Belle scenes were very realistic, in that you observed much of the action from the inside the bomber and thus felt trapped and helpless at 25,000 ft.

Granted, Red Tails will still take my money, and I will sit through it, but I will be sure to write a review

[Edited on January 10, 2012 at 2:05 PM. Reason : .]

1/10/2012 2:01:03 PM

I hate the trailer with the dubsteps with a passion... and I actually like dubstep...

might as well add some aliens to this movie...

1/10/2012 6:41:08 PM

yeah, they could have at least tried to use 1940s black jazz to be period accurate

1/10/2012 7:31:01 PM