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I really love films that feature WWII dogfighting. Over the years I've played many video games that focus on the WWII air war and I just love and appreciate the courage and skill that comes with being a fighter pilot. Couple that with George Lucas' eye for aerial dogfights and I was sold in a heartbeat. Of course, Lucas didn't write or direct this movie, but you can definitely feel his hand on the production... and that's not entirely a good thing. I really wanted to like this movie, I think, of the many stories that came out of WWII, the Tuskegee Airmen is absolutely a story worth telling, but this wasn't it. Red Tails suffers from some of the worst writing I've experienced along with some unfortunate acting and a story that lacked a satisfying climax. I will give it credit for some awesome aerial action sequences (all CG I assume), but that can't make the final experience enjoyable. I will close by saying that, even with my distaste for the film, it still received a healthy round of applause when the credits started rolling, so clearly someone enjoyed this movie, it just wasn't me.

2/5

Haywire is a peculiar sort of covert-ops thriller that can be seen as a noteworthy opposite approach to the genre from something like Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Where Ghost Protocol was huge and loud with snappy writing, loud music, and huge budgets, Haywire is subdued, sparse, and has a soundtrack that is almost entirely smooth jazz. It was definitely an odd sensation to be watching a thriller that seems hellbent on putting the audience to sleep. In some ways, the differences were refreshing, a different take on something that's become fairly ordinary is nice, but it was also a little difficult to stay awake at times, and the lazy pacing definitely didn't help things. I guess in the end it gets a shrug from me. It wasn't terrible, but it also wasn't much of a thriller in the traditional sense.

2/5

Let's just get this out of the way, Ghost Protocol was a very entertaining movie. Except for all the usual weird mumbo jumbo tech talk that never makes sense, it was fairly well scripted and the action sequences were very well put together and even the acting was decent. And then there was Simon Pegg who pretty much stole the show whenever he was on screen. That really makes me look forward to the next Star Trek movie. Anyway, it's a fun movie, go see it!

3/5

I feel like most people are already going to know the basics of this story, be it from the books or the previously released Swedish movies. Regardless, I haven't read the books or seen the other set of films, so this is all new to me and I have nothing to compare to. Very briefly, there's a mystery that needs a-solving, and a journalist is hired to solve it. When he needs help, he hires a clever 23 year old woman with a very difficult history to be his research assistant. This girl is both a genius and possibly insane (though I think it would be much more accurate to call her traumatized). Stuff happens, mystery gets solved, the end. I found the movie to be very well put together, brilliantly paced (for a 2 hour and 40 minute movie) and extremely entertaining. My only issue with the movie is that it takes place in Sweden (which is great) and that everyone speaks English all the time and everything is written in English. It's one thing if everyone simply speaks English in a foreign country, that I can forgive, but don't try and convince me that all the newspapers are English and Swedish people write their personal journals in English, and so on. I am really looking forward to the other movies in this series.

4/5