Warbirds (2008)

Excellent but underrated film

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

During WW2 an American bomber piloted by an all female crew but carrying some army guys plus a "top secret" load (obviously the atomic bomb, no prizes for figuring that one out!) land on a small Pacific island. Here not only do they face the danger of 3 - yes 3! - Japanese soldiers but also a hundred huge flying reptiles! Yes, it's pretty bonkers but this is a SciFi movie after all. And to be fair it's one of their better ones, though considering that most are just bloody awful that's hardly an endorsement! Yes, the plot is stupid but the acting is reasonable, despite being played straight. Both Jamie Elle Mann & Brian Krause in the lead roles do a decent job. The special effects, i.e. CGI, though obviously pretty cheap, are reasonable (for a SF movie). And there are a few good moments of tension - this is played for scares, not laughs. Overall, far from being a great film but it does, in my opinion, give me hope that not all SciFi movies are utter crap & that there may even be a few more out there worth 90 minutes of my life.

Well, given the synopsis of this movie, then you know that chances are quite high that this is going to be one of those movies. You know what I am talking about; a low budget creature feature that lacks everything essential to even have a chance of being watchable.And "Warbirds" sort of turned out to be that kind of movie.First of all, the idea of prehistoric reptilians flying the skies in the Pacific during World War II, well it just wasn't the best of movie ideas to ever have made it to the screen. Let's just be honest. It makes for a laughable plot.Then there was the fact that for some reason the Japanese soldiers spoke English. For the sake of easy watching and listening for the audience, I get that. But when they opt to not include the original language in a movie, it just takes away so much credibility from the movie.Which leads me to the CGI. Wow, just wow. Many of the scenes that included the painfully obvious CGI animated bomber was just abysmal to bear witness to. However, it should also be said that there were actually many CGI scenes in "Warbirds" that turned out nice enough. But the ones that weren't good, were in fact so terrible that it was laughable.And the biggest problem in the entire movie had to be the Maxine West character (played by Jamie Elle Mann). Now, there was nothing wrong with Jamie Elle Mann or her performance, but the character in the movie, wow, you have got to be kidding. Not once throughout the entire course of the movie did she act like military personnel and just follow orders. No, she had to question everything and blatantly go into opposition to the order. It was so bad that it was actually a cumbersome anchor around the movie. That was really a bad idea for a movie character.Now, I mentioned that some of the CGI was actually good enough, and the movie should be praised for that part, at least. The creatures were nice enough to look at, and seemed realistic enough. Except for when they were gunned down in the sky, which they often were, there was absolutely no blood. Which I wound think there would be, given the caliber of the guns mounted on airplanes during World War II.The acting in "Warbirds" was adequate, although you shouldn't prepare yourself for anything grand.All in all, then this 2008 movie was a fairly poor excuse of a creature feature. And it is topped off with an even more laughable ending, trust me. Not overly interesting or particularly entertaining, "Warbirds" score a meager three out of ten stars rating from me.

!!!CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!-100 out of 10What is wrong with this film, well seeing as I only have a limited space lets just cover the basics.Acting: There was seemingly no passion or life in any of the characters. Even during the final human confrontation when the Japanese commander is arguing the morality of his case there is no life in his words. Although the script is terrible, the acting is worse. I can only imagine how much these actor must have needed the money.Script: Let's just say there is enough holes and problems for me to use it as a sieve.Animation: Most studios would have been happy with the animation about 15 before this movie was produced, but would be to embarrassed by it to show their face now! An example is when the plane comes into land in the beginning it hits the tarmac hard enough to brake the wings off. However in movie it was a great landing!!And finally we come to the biggest problems, plot holes and props. Now normally I can let things like this go, if a story is good enough but nothing can save this plane wreck. Firstly, the A-Bomb in the bomb bay is way to small. The original Little Boy and Fat Man were the size of a large car, yet this bomb is a little bigger than a large suitcase or sack. Secondly, an A-Bomb going off creates a sizable seismic event, an A-Bomb blowing up an island would easily have been picked up in Japan. A top secret weapon that the enemy knows about before it can be used is not top secret!Not only that, bombs need fuses to make them work, like an altimeter fuse to detonate the bomb at a specific altitude. When they are transported they do not have the fuse fitted so that they don't accidentally go off. So the mere act of dropping it wouldn't make it go off. A-Bombs have survived fatal plane crashes without going off, dropping it wouldn't make it go off, or if the trigger explosive did happen to go off it wouldn't look like a classic nuclear detonation.And finally, the Pacific islands are young when compared to the Dino's who are supposed to inhabit it. So unless they had a habit of making their nests on the ocean floor there would be no way their nest could be on an island in the first place.Just remember that this is only the tip of the very large iceberg of issues with this movie! Save yourself, don't watch this movie!

...some excitement would be nice. I gotta admit, this movie was a disappointment. True, this flick is typical SciFi Channel Original schlock. But given that I have a soft spot for attractive women and dinosaurs, I thought this would be a winner if for no other reason than the cheese factor. But it was just dull. An American WWII mission ends up with an emergency landing on a desolate island where some Japanese soldiers got ambushed by some killer pterodactyls. Then the Americans get a taste of Pterodactyl Pterror, all the while trying to get their planes off the island and making sure the Japs don't take advantage of the situation. The problem is, there's not enough pterodactyl action; the movie really is more fixated on the WWII angle. The pterodactyls make their presence known but at times they're a secondary plot device to the "secret mission." Hot babe Max West (Jamie Ellen Mann) and her superior Jack (Brian Krause) spend too much time arguing over whether the mission is worth it. The other girls -- Betsy, Vicky and Lana -- serve nicely as eye candy. However, the scene where green galpal Hoodsie volunteers to attempt a solo mission off the island because she supposedly weighs less than Max is a joke, because Hoodsie looks like she needs to go see Jenny Craig while Max definitely takes care of herself. When they are fighting the pterodactyls, this movie is entertaining. But there's just not enough of it. I won't give this a 1 like most people have, because this is definitely better than most crap SciFi channel puts out (i.e., "Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep," "Hammerhead: Shark Frenzy"), but "Warbirds" is only worthy of a disappointing 4.