One would think that a movie with the driving force of George Lucas, a script co-written by “The Boondocks” creator Aaron McGruder, a director like Anthony Hemingway and starring the likes of Terrence Howard and David Oyelowo would be good. Really good. Sadly, the critics, aren’t seeing a lot of good about the film aside from being a well-meaning film.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently has a low 33% from the critics, whereas the audience has given it a 73%. The general critical consensus is, according to Rotten Tomatoes, “Despite a worth fact-based story and obvious good intentions, ‘Red Tails’ suffers from one-dimensional characters, corny dialogue, and heaps of clichés.”
Here’s what the critics said individually:
“I wanted to like ‘Red Tails.’ I really did…One can get away with a lot of cornball speeches a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away but it doesn’t work nearly as well a short time ago on planet Earth.”–James Berardinelli, ReelViews
“This is so generic as storytelling that it fails even as a basic history lesson[.]”–Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader
“If virtue was the sole or primary criterion for judging a movie’s worth, then ‘Red Tails’ would score an easy four stars.”–James Adams, Globe and Mail
What do you think about the film? Give your opinions below.
