Windtalkers

Rating:
Summary: A BARE DVD PACKAGE!
Review: "Windtalkers" looks great and sounds awesome in digital form! But the DVD has almost no bonus material on it!
Special Features:
"Windtalkers" Teaser Trailer
"Windtalkers" Theatrical Trailer
"Die Another Day" Teaser Trailer
"007" DVD Collection Trailer
"Hart's War" DVD Trailer
"Windtalkers" Soundtrack Promo Spot
Recommendations from MGM Studios
Widescreen (2.40:1) and Fullscreen Formats
Closed Captioning
Subtitles

I thought flops always got bigger DVD releases! But this one, although it's a great film, proved me wrong!
Movie Grade: A+
DVD Grade: C+

Rating:
Summary: A Real Dog of a War Movie
Review: I actively hated this movie. After twenty minutes, I was looking at my watch, wondering how much more I could take. Instead of a movie about Navajo code talkers, this is just another silly Hollywood take on a disaffected white sergeant who has to regain his humanity in the trenches after watching his former command die before his bassethound eyes. The battle scenes are endless, unbelieveable - and boring beyond belief. Cliches fly faster than the bullets and severed limbs. Nick Cage's character is badly conceived and poorly executed. The direction is uninspired, with lots of people jumping up for no reason and getting shot, then other people running to the rescue, and getting shot. Too bad the movie makers lacked the faith - and courage - to tell the story from the Navajo point of view instead of going for mock celluloid heroics that undermine the sacrifice of real soldiers.

Rating:
Summary: Another Cage flop....
Review: Nicolas is not chosing his screenplays correctley...

WINDTALKER should have been called EMPYTTALKERS. God, nothing happens here, it's a total waste of time and money. They had a good plot concept, but they exploded it.

Rating:
Summary: So disappointing.....................
Review: As a fan of both war movies and of Nicholas Cage I was very excited to see this movie. However, I was left greatly disappointed. This movie is horribly inaccurate coupled with poor acting by most. Nicholas Cage seems to be able to kill 5 men with every 1 shot. Seemed very unrealistic to me...........

Rating:
Summary: Lotsa Wind, Little Talk
Review: This is one of the worst films that I have ever seen. The historical inaccuracies, though significant, are almost forgivable in comparison to Woo's outrageous ignorance of the military. The military campaign is incomprehensible. On top of that, the acting is almost universally poor, though Adam Beach does a fairly respectable job. I might have to reevaluate the poor reviews I gave to other war films in order to balance the scales a little bit. Avoid this film by any means necessary. You will either hate it, or be made stupider for having watched it.

Rating:
Summary: I didn't expect to like this film
Review: I only watched this film because I'm a fan of actor Adam Beach, who plays Ben Yazzee. It wasn't a great film, but it was good, I liked it much better than I expected to. I don't usually like war films, and those scenes were horrendous, but the interaction of the code talkers with the other Marines, and particularly the Marines guarding them, was very touching, and I was moved to tears by their ability to maintain their identity and spirituality in a hostile environment. In spite of what had been done to them by the white man, they were willing to put their lives on the line to save this country. I'm glad to own this film. We owe these men our lives and it's heartening to see them finally recognized for the irreplaceable contribution they made to keeping alive a society which has mistreated them.

Rating:
Summary: Napoleonic soliders in WWII garb
Review: You're in your trench and you see the enemy coming -what do you do? In this movie, you always stand up so the enemy has a better shot. Because of this, the battle scenes look like Napoleonic battles with the solidiers in WWII garb. The movie shows both sides to be equally stupid - immediately giving up any cover when the enemy is spotted. The inane battle scenes, plastic emotions of the actors, and the portrayal of the solidiers of both sides as dumb grunts makes it easily 1-star.

Rating:
Summary: mindless gore
Review: The only beautiful scenes are the ones solely dedicated to the Navajos or their homeland. The rest of the movie is unrealistic, stupid gore. Cage kills all the baddies in effortlessly brutal ways.

In addition, the movie is historically inaccurate. Save for the fact that a Navajo code existed, and was never broken during WW2, everything else is ....

Saving grace: Adam Beach is a great actor that one gets to like more and more as the movie proceeds.

Rating:
Summary: A downright awful movie.
Review: As many others, complete disappointment. The bar has been raised as far as war movies goes with Band of Brothers, and this just plain sucks. How hokey. When you make a movie based on real events, we expect real action.

Don't waste your time or money on this dog.

Rating:
Summary: A disapointing war film from the master of action
Review: Director John Woo, known for his talent in action films, creates what is probably his worst film with Windtalkers. The idea sounds great: A gifted director of action makes a war film full of battles. But the result is a mess of war clichés and run-of-the-mill action scenes.

The film follows a sergeant (Nicolas Cage) in World War II on an assignment to protect a Navajo-code talker in the midst of taking control of a Japanese-held Island. But unfortunately the potentially interesting story never seems to break out from underneath the action.

What most strikes a foul chord, though, are the terrible, corny war clichés. One soldier hands his wedding band to a friend with instructions to return it to his wife if he dies. The next scene he dies. A hardened soldier who doesn't seem to care about anyone helps a poor Japanese child when he thinks no one is looking. Another racist soldier finds out his ways are wrong. Not one scene in Windtalkers is original, they're just cringe worthy. It's all been done much better before.

Of course, intellectual drama isn't Woo's strong point, his action is. So this war film must have great battle action scenes right? Wrong, wrong, wrong. They are boring, tired retreads of better action scenes from other war films. What was Woo doing here? Did he really direct this film?

There were a few glimmers of hope during some scenes, but they didn't last long enough to ever make this film enjoyable. The masses may see this film and think it was decent, then quickly forget about it because it really wasn't. For World War II action, stick with Saving Private Ryan.