Windtalkers

Rating:
Summary: Band of Blunders
Review: Band of Blunders.

The first blunder is the movie's title. The movie about the Navajo code talkers still needs to be made.

The battle scenes were absurd. Nic Cage was apparently armed with a remarkable government issue handgun which was capable of firing bullets not just from the barrel, but also (and simultaneously!) laterally. Nothing else could explain the remarkable number of Japanese soldiers who fell dead whenever Mr. Cage pulled the trigger. Even more astonishing, Cage rarely bothered to actually aim the handgun! The weapon also had an ingenious magazine, which accommodated far more than the 7-bullet capacity typical for the model.

Oddly, the American artillery frequently caught the Japanese relaxing by jumping on trampolines (several of them at once!) when shells exploded in their general vicinity. Nothing else could explain the symmetrical trajectory of the Japanese soldiers as they flew through the air.

Cage's acting showed none of the remarkable range, nuance or insight of the gifted Chuck Norris.

As for the cliché-ridden script, it was 4F - unfit for military duty.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Greatest WWII Action Movies of All Time
Review: WINDTALKERS is one of the greatest WWII movies of all time. It works on several levels. The action scenes are incredibly intense and nerve racking. It was like you're right there in the middle of all the fighting and hand-to-hand combat. It's unbelievable. You get to care about these Marines as the film progresses. The more you care about these guys it seems to make the scenes of combat all the more furious and you just want them to use any means to survive. This is a brutal film and it really gives you a sense of how confused, disoriented and desperate you become under these conditions to stay alive and keep your buddies alive as well. I walked out of the theatre at the end of the film and I just felt mesmerized. This movie is not doing good at the box-office. Anybody who sees this movie should get the word out to go see it. I really felt a lot of emotion about this movie. It's a lot more than just an action film. If you watch it you will see that it has a to say.

Rating:
Summary: Alot of action but a lil disappointing
Review: This movie is a great action flick, and I mean that. John Woo did a great job with it, making it in the vein of his Hong Kong classics like Hard Boiled and The Killer. It is an extremely flawed film, however. First problem is the lack of realism. I think of it as a western, where the marines are the cowboys, and they shoot ten thousand indians, who are the Japanese in this situation, but only two cowboys die. While those numbers may be a little exaggerated it did bother me. A movie based on true events should give a good and realistic depiction of the events. This movie fails to do that. I would say to any Woo fan to go see it just because it's Woo. But war flick fans may wanna steer clear of this one.

Rating:
Summary: Could have used a few believable characters.
Review: Windtalkers (John Woo, 2002)

The first question on everyone's mind upon leaving the theatre after seeing this film is "why did it get made?" As seems increasingly common in Hollywood these days, an incredible cast is put together, handed a script that resembles roast beef hash, and the whole ensemble attempts to make something of it.

By far the best thing to be said about Windtalkers is the two Navajo code-talkers themselves, played by Adam Beach (the title character from Squanto: A Warrior's Tale a few years ago) and newcomer Roger Willie. The two of them are paired with, respectively, an angry young man (Nicolas Cage) who gets the job because he's good at following orders, though he's conflicted about it, and a happy-go-lucky type nicknamed Ox (Christian Slater). There are so many attempts to show bonding between these four individuals in various ways, and every single one of them falls short. They are clichéd, shallow, and do nothing other than tell us that the characters are in the same war. Because that falls flat, the rest of the movie has to as well. If your four main characters can't connect with one another, it's doubtful that the audience is going to connect with the film in any way. ** for Beach's performance, even if it wasn't connected to anything else.

Rating:
Summary: I Walked out
Review: OK here's what you're thinking going into this movie, John Woo, Nick Cage, Christian Slater, WW2. This is going to be a great flick right? Wrong! As several other reviewers have noted most of what we see is the patented Nick Cage manic depressed looks in various enviroments. Nick depressed with bullets flying, nick depressed in the grave yard, nick depressed in hospital...get the picture? I can't say how it ends up because I walked out after "Nick depressed with sake after the mission got fouled up" Thank God AAFES only charges $3.50 a ticket.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Pacific Theater War Movie
Review: For those who cannot stop complaining about how the Navajo's were given the short end of the stick in this movie, this review is for you. On the war perspective, the movie was excellent. The plot followed the typical war movie script, however the action scenes were good enough to distract one from the same old 'Saving Private Ryan' storyline. The story of the Navajo code talkers was not put into great detail ... Come on, this is Hollywood...

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I felt that this movie left alot to be desired; at least from me. As a history of World War II buff, I thought that I would learn lots more about the code, the people who developed it and used it as well as the traditions behind it. The movie was lacking in all of those areas. While there was some good social commentary about prejudice toward Native Americans, I felt that this problem as well as their important contribution to the war effort were grossly understated. What the film did not lack was blood, guts, and pyrotechnics. While I understand that war is certainly not pretty, we all all seen that kind of thing before in other films. If you like that sort of thing, this is the movie for you. On the other hand, The Windtalkers had the opportunity to illuminate the contribution of a proud, heroic and patriotic people. For this viewer, they blew it.

Rating:
Summary: Realism and pain
Review: I've seen hundreds of war movies over the years. "Windtalkers" stopped me in my tracks. To my surprise, it was actually painful to watch in its realism. No, I haven't been to war myself -- but my husband, a combat veteran of Vietnam, agrees that John Woo, the director, had caught the tone and the experience of combat perfectly. Yes, the blood and horror, but also the fatalism, and the heroism, and the loyalty to your buddies, and the job of being just a good Marine doing what you know has to be done. Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach and Christian Slater cared a lot about these roles, and it comes through. Seldom have I found I cared enough about a movie character to shed real tears for him or her; in this movie, that was easy. The characters develop very believably and the Navajo mysticism adds a fascinating twist to the plot. They said if you haven't seen "Saving Private Ryan", you don't know what the landing at Normany was like -- well, if you haven't seen "Windtalkers", you don't know what the Marines went through fighting from island to island in WWII. They're right -- some things really are worth dying for.

Rating:
Summary: Oh Look! Chinese Directors Can Make Bad Movies, Too!
Review:

This movie is so bad I almost left the theater. The only reason I didn't is because I thought my girlfriend wanted to see it. It turns out she didn't leave because she thought I wanted to see it. Other than that, we would have both walked out of this boring, unbelievable, cliched, dull movie.

The one good element of this movie is the attention to detail in the gear and uniforms of both sides. Also, the Marines' Hymn was sung correctly: the Marines (while getting drunk) break out their song and sing "We will fight our country's battles on the land and on the sea." Now, it's "In the air, on land, and sea," because the Marines started using airpower. This was a nice touch, but this movie deals with the invasion of Saipan, which happened in 1944. The Marines' Hymn lyrics were changed to include airpower with the approval of the Commandant in 1942. So, the movie was innacurate in this point though it was trying to be accurate.

The Marines and Japanese uniforms and gear were all good. I especially liked the Japanese 50mm knee mortar and the T14 "Nambu" 8mm light machine gun. Both of these were excellent jungle fighting weapons, and are sadly missing from most war movies, though you get a good looksie here.

Having said plenty about the nice details, lets review why the movie was bad. The storyline in this movie was tragically bad, though it dealt with veeeery interesting material. The US started using Navajo as code talkers because, by best estimates, there were no native Navajo speakers outside the US, and the language has long vowel clusters that are impossible to discern unless you learn the living language or grow up speaking the tongue. The Japanese broke MANY American codes, but the Navajo code was simply impossible to penetrate.

Also, the weapon effects in this movie were pretty unrealistic. A bazooka making a bigger explosion than naval gunfire? Speaking of which, why did they through in some vintage footage of battleships to show where the gunfire came from? All the artillery explosions looked like blooming gasoline fires. And how did Nick Cage waste like six Japanese with three shots? With guys like him, no wonder the US won the war.

Anyway, this movie is good for some details and showing weapons, but bad on storyline and realistic battles. I would definitely wait for video. Better yet, wait until it's the Sunday Night Movie.

-- JJ Timmins

Rating:
Summary: High anticipation...then sad Disappointment
Review: Windtalkers is about the navajo code talkers in World War II who played a substantial role in the war in the pacific. THis movie had nothing about that topic in the plot. I personally love war movies. I enjoy to watch movies such as: Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Lin, We Were Soldiers, Black Hawk Down, Platoon, etc. I saw the previews for this movie and I talked to my friend about it who he would say its battle scenes would top Saving Private Ryan's D-day portrail. I was so hyped up for this movie that it was just a relief to finally get into the theater to see it. When it was over I was so disappointed with the film. The plot had nothing to do about the navajo code talkers. The movie did nothing to honor the code talkers who saved thousands of lives. The movie was about a battle hardened marine who cares little about life and anything else and learns to get along with his navajo code talker Ben Yazi, Alex Beach. The battle scenes were disappointing too. You have a group of soldier attacking strong points of the Japanese and everyone dies but the main characters. THis type of carnage in a war movie was rediculous. The plot consisted of little ratial tentions among the soldiers, attacking the japanese, and a man reading letters from a woman back in Hawaii. He receives letters from a love interest back home but nothing ever happens with that sub-plot. It just fades and we forget about it. I laughed out loud with the code talker dressed up like a Japanese soldier with His commanding officer to get a radio, how believeable is that? It is rediculous that there were only 400 navajo code talkers fighting in the pacific and in the movie the code talker was sent out to the front lines and purposely put him to to harms way and the marines try to protect him. John Woo should have focused on the real jobs the navajo code talkers served such as long distance recons and long proximaty artillery raids. This movie had nothing to do with the code talkers and to try and pull it off, the main characters say to themselves "We saved a lot of marines today." I hated this movie and a recommend it to no one. This genre and topic had so much potential and John Woo blew it. It could have been so much better but no.