The 109's were not marked correctly. The theater bands should be white not yellow. Yellow bands are for the eastern front. The bombers were not marked correctly also. The markings were for 8th Air Force. The maintainers were falsely represented. I'm a retired Air Force maintainer and I've done a few tours in the sand box. I don't care if it's -50 or 150 degrees we work the aircraft. I've done 8hr shifts and I've done 48 hour plus shifts. The only thing that's acceptable is fix the bird.

This is a B-grade production who's producers have gone to lengths to apologise for any inaccuracies, even if it was a very childish, mealy-mouthed apology full of passive-aggressive barbs and vitriol.B grade aside, unknown actors aside, historical inaccuracy aside, even fairly woeful CGI aside, this movie is simply amateurish nonsense.Forget the tiny details of historical accuracy that could have elevated the film, how about just some basic continuity? Towards the end, our plucky ball gunner mentions (and we see) the left hand main undercarriage leg of the Lucky Lady sail towards the earth, completely disconnected from the aircraft. Moments later, another belly shot shows both undercarriage legs firmly ensconced in their respective bays. Not only did the leg fall in oblivion, the cycling of the landing gear apparently didn't occur in the first instance.As for the CGI, I've seen computer games with more thought put into their production.The actors deserve some praise for their various (if predictable) character roles, but beyond that, the producers and their petty whining about the critiques suffered, the directors and their apparent lack of desire for continuity (or even period dialogue) and the CGI 'artists' for their high-school attempts deserve little, if anything.The producers bemoaned the lack of support from organisations with actual B-17s. Perhaps these groups took one look at this motley assortment and thought 'hell, no!'.To those who attempted to compare this with Memphis Belle... really? Have you actually watched either film? I'm going with 'no'.This is just a sad little millennial's's attempt at what they think B- 17 operations must have been like. They've made precious little effort to actually find out much of any reality and for this, they should be ashamed, as the period in question is one rarely covered and deserved so much more.In closing, I'd suggest the producers put their whiny apology as a preface to their next project, because I know full well that, if I had read it prior to watching this, I would have avoided this movie like the plague.

The basic plot - the newbie second lieutenant trying to fit in to a tight-knit military group - has been done many many times, but this one gets it right. Hollywood usually uses a single climactic event to earn the respect of the men, but in this movie it is done the way it is in real life: hard work, brains, patience and a willingness to take care of your men, no matter the risk. At times the digital effects make you think you are in a video game, and the B-17's are sometimes depicted as if they were modeled on a kid's toy instead of the real thing, but in the end the viewer is treated to fantastic scenery and action. The attention to detail is to be commended. The uniforms looked like real GI uniforms that are cleaned and maintained in a field environment rather than by a Hollywood costume department. Even the nurses in wake scene looked like they are in the 1940's. The nod to the ground crews, the unsung heroes who worked way past the call of duty to keep the airplanes flying, was appreciated by this ground crew veteran. There are some nits, to be sure, especially noticeable to aircraft enthusiasts, but overall a great movie that deserves respect, and viewing.

All right, fellas, listen up. Sit down. Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Today's mission maybe looks like a milk run to you. All that we need to do is have a CGI pageant. But I'm afraid most of you won't make it back.The computer-generated images are just plain splendid. Dozens of colorful and detailed B-17Fs fill the blazing blue sky. The crew are flying out of Algiers and their targets are in Italy. The film opens with a hazardous run in which the bombers are attacked by zipping Me-109s and casualties are incurred. It ends with another mission over Rome itself and the results are catastrophic.I don't know why it doesn't hang together but frankly the CGIs are about the only thing the production has going for it, and even those could be improved on. Not the images themselves; they're crisp. But the way they're used by the director. Whoever decided that the airplane on the screen must fly at high speed, nose first into the camera? How did this become a tradition? With "Pearl Harbor"? It's so jarring and distracting that it's passed far beyond its sell-by date.Another problem, and a serious one, is the acting. The performers seem drawn from some obscure afternoon TV series. It's difficult to tell one from another. Bug Hall is noticeable because he has a peachy role -- the newcomer who must be integrated into the crew. (Cf., Hawks' "Air Force".) Chris Owen, the chief engineer and master brewer, stands out because he looks like a slightly malformed Benedict Cumberbatch. The musical score of Gaelic-sounding melodies is lifted from "Memphis Belle" and "We Were Soldiers."Almost all the actors sound as if they were raised in Los Angeles or its indistinguishable suburbs. I realize they weren't but, as much as we don't need another re-run of the crew of "The Memphis Belle," NOBODY HAS AN ACCENT. Of course fewer people have regional accents now. We're all beginning to speak Network English. But in 1943, regional dialects could pin you down to a single city, and in some cases a few blocks in that city. But neither the writer nor anyone else appears to have spent much effort on the speech or the dialog. Anachronistic expressions include, "Roger that," and "I need you to (do something)." The usual clichés are used, elements drawn from every combat film.. New co-pilot to pilot: "Do you ever feel you're living on borrowed time?" Pilot: "Every second of every day." Eg., "Flying Leathernecks." Young pilot to John Wayne: "Don't tell me YOU'RE scared too!" Wayne: "Every time I go up." "The flak is so heavy you can walk on it." (Twice.) "I'm not in a popularity contest." The writers missed a few rituals -- "mail call" and the romantic triangle. But they did manage to squeeze in the part about the crew building a still and making jungle juice. In fact, when these guys aren't flying, they drink enough booze to stun an elephant and the next day they fly as if nothing had happened.See it if you want, but I have a feeling that once you're into it you'll realize you've seen most of it before in one isomorphism or another.