The story of the Tuskegee airmen, a crew of African American pilots during World War II, deserved to be told but I question whether George Lucas was the man to bring this tale of heroism and discrimination to the screen. Although Anthony Hemingway is the director of Red Tails, the influence of Lucas’ groping mitts is evident in every single frame. It is earnest to a fault, cheesy as hell and laden with enough unconvincing CGI to make it look just as far fetched as the Star Wars saga.

In some ways its old fashioned Boys Own Adventure tone is refreshing but some semblance of subtlety wouldn’t have gone amiss. It attempts to capture the spirit of the war movies…

At the beginning of the George Lucas produced Red Tails, an on screen title appears telling you this film is based on true events, and it's a good thing too, since Red Tails is so far removed from reality that you'd never come to such a conclusion otherwise. The locations look fake. The acting seems forced. And the love-story subplot is completely implausible. In fact, the only semi-believable part of the film is its CGI. What’s even worse, despite zero attempt at capturing the actual historical context of the Tuskegee training group, an underestimated battalion of black fighter pilots during WWII, the film still pretends to deal with issues contemporary to its setting, like racism, heroism and Nazism. If you’ve…

This has to be one of the funniest films I've seen all year along with The Darkest Hour. It's Hot Shots meets Churchill The Hollywood Years. In fact there's no way to parody Red Tails as it does the job itself.

Starting out with the hilarious 80s score and opening credit sequence, the laughs come hard and fast as soon as Ne-Yo's name pops up (doing his best J.W. Pepper impersonation), also starring such respected thespians as Dixon from 90210 and Moesha's little brother. One plane is even painted using the Comic Sans font! We were crying with laugher in the cinema at several points.

The speech dubbing is all over the place - at one point a character is…

George Lucas’s last blockbuster production before he finally decided to dedicate 100% of his time to his true destiny: forever re-releasing Star Wars movies. That’s what this recent article told me, although to be fair, it was all in between the lines. (It’s also confusing how they talk about the movies Lucas “made” meaning produced, not directed.)

Given the special effects were done by Industrial Light & Magic, the fact that the dogfights look spectacular goes without saying. It needs to be said anyway. The visuals are breathtaking, the big screen really feels big, and the action sequences are riveting.

And yes, it’s just an action movie. It has none of the appropriate respect to the horrors of that most terrifying…

A movie made with good intentions, a clunky script and a dispiriting lack of directorial grace, Red Tails barely makes it back to the runway intact. It's the kind of movie you want to like – a racially charged underdog story, about the African American squadron of fighter pilots known as the Tuskagee Airmen and, more informally, as the Red Tails.

Unfortunately, director Anthony Hemingway, helming his first feature film here, seems to have relied heavily on consistently uninspired directorial cues from producer George Lucas, because all of the unfortunate hallmarks of the bearded one's inept style of actor direction are in full view here. Only whenever the movie segues into one of its handful of dogfighting sequences does it…