B-17: A Fortaleza

July, 1943. US bomber squadrons are bombing Sicily in preparation for the Allies' invasion. One such bomber is the Lucky Lass, a B- 17. When her commander is killed, the co-pilot, Lt. Wally McAllister, is given command of the plane. A rookie co-pilot, 2nd Lt. Mike Schmidt, joins the crew. Schmidt immediately alienates himself by not joining in and making some very basic errors on missions. Now he must regain their trust and support...

Amateurish in just about every way. Story is quite basic, clumsy and predictable. Direction is paint-by-numbers stuff, with no attempt at engaging the audience or anything approaching grittiness. Performances are hammy at best, and generally quite cringeworthy. Even the CGI, which in 2012 should be an easy tick, feels like something from a video game, and not a very good one.

However, decent enough battle scenes though, and a reasonably powerful final few scenes, make this not a total write-off. Still not worth watching though.

Laughable movie. Good CG, but someone did not do their history lesson. While B-17s did operate out of Africa, there were nowhere near the numbers the movie shows. Heck, there weren't that many in Europe at the time! The aircraft depicted are the wrong model and are sporting European camouflage schemes, not North African schemes. Crews in Africa did not walk around in sheep skin flight clothing during the day and it is near freezing at night in the desert. At the operating altitudes of the B-17s and B-24s, the temperatures are at or near 50 degrees below zero. No one is wearing light flight clothing. They are festooned in electrically heated flight suits and flak gear. No one is eating or drinking anything because it would be frozen.

In the aerial combat scenes, weapons are fired in bursts for a number of reasons. And, there is no such thing as a P-40 Warhawk dogfighting a Bf-109; the former was hopelessly outclassed by the later. In the more recent movie, "Redtails," there is a reason the black fighter units were employed only as ground support and not fighter escort. The P-40 was incapable of doing the job as fighter to high-altitude bombers.

I could go on. Basically, this movie is a video game in which you have no control. But, the crew interaction was well done.

With the advent of CGI, the story of the 8th Air Force in Europe during WWII is begging to be told. The visual effects in this film were very good--I just wish they had shown the B-17s over Germany instead. Over a hundred thousand young men were killed in B-17s and B-24s over the skies of the Third Reich. Spielberg needs to make this film.

"Fortress" is a great first step, and I thank the producers for doing what big-time Hollywood could not. They made a much better film than "Memphis Belle", which was so badly Hollywoodized that the story it told about a real airplane and its crew was in no way the real story.

In "Memphis Belle", six actual B-17s were used, along with large radio-controlled models. One B-17 was lost during the production.

With CGI, hundreds of 17s and 24s can fill the skies, and the look is incredibly realistic. "Fortress" is definitely worth seeing.

If you like flying movies or World War II movies, I don't think you can go wrong with Fortress.

The movie is about the crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress flying out of North Africa during World War II, during a time of very high casualties. It centered on the crew of one plane, as they fought and as many of them died.

It was generally quite good. On the up side, they had a credible, real story and a pretty good set of actors. The special effects were generally pretty good. They didn't make any historical errors I spotted either.

It wasn't perfect. Some parts were predictable and there were lapses in special effects. But it was good and I definitely enjoyed it. Give it a try and I think you'll enjoy it too.

After a string of stinkers out of Hollywood lately, I wasn't expecting much from this film, with its cast of little known actors. And at first I thought it was living up to my expectations, with a few glitches here and there dragging my attention out of the story. But it kept pulling me back and I found at the end that I was thoroughly absorbed. It hammers a few points perhaps over-strongly, where subtlety might have been more elegant, but it had an honesty that overlaid that.

It isn't gung-ho like a 60's war movie, and it isn't ultra-realistic like a modern battle film, it's somewhere in between and has a charm and compulsion of its own that made me very pleased to have watched it.

Forgive it its few faults and it will reward you with a good watch!