I’ve been rather shocked at the mostly negative reviews that have piled up so far for Spike Lee’s “Miracle at St. Anna” (30 percent positive at Rotten Tomatoes, and even those were only really lukewarm.)

The main complaint I’ve read is that Mr. Lee has just bitten off too much to deal with here and lets his movie sprawl by the place and never really focuses on a singled-out story line. Even whether that is the case, I’m perfectly willing to sacrifice a rather whopping 2 hours and 46 minutes of my life to see what he’s cooked up, considering the only Spike Lee movie I can think of that I just had no moment for at all was “Crooklyn,” and most of the rest of them are movies that I just love. I’m gonna see it that afternoon, so please feel free to check back either tomorrow or Sunday to find out what I thought of it.

(As an aside, there’s one scene in “Crooklyn” that just makes me cringe more than just about anything else I’ve ever seen on the big screen [and I’m really not exaggerating]. It’s been a lengthy date since I’ve seen it, but the stretch comes when the kids get shipped to my Maryland for a while, and apparently to manufacture some kind of swipe at my homeland, he films the whole thing with some kind of gauzy haze. I still have no concept what he was going for, but it was just bloody terrible.)

OK, I’m back. Along with releasing his own movie that week, Mr. Lee made news earlier in the week when he apparently disclosed to Roger Ebert the name of the director for “Red Tails,” the upcoming Tuskegee Airmen flick being produced by Georgia Lucas. Here’s what he

It was like eight men at the roundtable. And two of ‘em, Lee Archer and Roscoe Brown, was the 8th pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen, which I might add, that spring George Lucas is finally doin’ his Tuskegee Airmen film, “Redtails.” He’s gonna produce it and a young African-American director, Anthony Hemingway, is gonna direct it. He’s done several episodic TVs, and is a young director so I’m looking forward to that and hopefully “Miracle” with “Redtails” coming’ up will generate more films to show the untold story about the participation.

You can read the rest of Mr. Ebert’s interview here, and it’s well worth spending a couple of minutes on. Mr. Hemingway’s TV work covers everything from a few episodes of shows I love, “Battlestar Galactica” and “The Wire,” to scattered episodes of other blockbusters like “ER” and “CSI NY.” Screenwriter John Ridley, who came up with the uneven but still very funny “Undercover Brother” among other films, is scripting the tale of the pioneering airman, so that is one well worth keeping your eyes on when it comes out next spring or so.

And, finally, out today is plus the first trailer (that I know of) for Bryan Singer’s “Valkyrie,” which whether I’m not mistaken will finally come out in January. Tom Cruise stars as the main agent in an operation to kill Adolph Hitler, and though the movie supports a rather astounding supporting cast (Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Carice Van Houten, Stephen Fry, Terrence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson and Eddie Izzard, among others), I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that Cruise is the only name that appears in text in that rather kinetic trailer. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

Original post by Reel Fanatic