Watch Windtalkers For Free

Sorry, this movie sucks

Fresh and Exciting

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This movie theoretically has a lot going for it-- John Woo can direct the hell out of action sequences, Nicholas Cage is a good/entertaining actor, and the premise of the movie holds potential. That's why it's ultimately all that much more disappointing when Windtalkers turns out the way that it does. The action is flat, the story is riddled with tired war movie clichés, and Nicholas Cage is utterly un-engaging for the first two thirds of the movie, and only becomes slightly more likable in the last third. On top of that, the movie is looooonng. It isn't like it's going to give you dysentery if you *have* to watch it like we did, but saying that is basically the textbook definition of damning with faint praise. Don't watch."Why would anyone *have* to watch Windtalkers", you may be asking yourself. That's a good question, and the answer is (in our case, at least) because it was the movie we selected totally at random in the fourth episode of our podcast, Tara and Andrew Versus The Scarecrow Video Movie Guide. You can hear our more detailed thoughts on Windtalkers by finding us on Apple Podcasts or the podcasting app of your preference, or by going directly to the episode page right here: https://www.taraandandrewversus.com/blog/2017/8/20/episode-4- windtalkers. Check it out, if you would be so kind! We try to keep things fairly concise, so even if you're sorry you listened, you won't be VERY sorry.

Windtalkers is by far the most inaccurate and unrealistic war movie I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. I was a fan of the film growing up, as explosions generally attract young boys. Now that I've matured it's painfully obvious how generic it is. The acting is sub par for a war movie, the genuine emotions of war are vacant in this film. The amount of explosions almost make me think Michael Bay was really behind this film, using John Woo as an alias. Nic Cage is a one man army, which is truly the most irritating part of it all. His character is equipped with an M1A1 Thompson SMG. The Thompson holds 20 rounds a magazine, yet I don't believe I saw Cage reload a single time. Besides his infinite magazine and ammunition, he single handedly kills dozens upon dozens of the enemy, which makes the rest of his squad appear utterly useless. Adam Beach gives a rather a dry performance, which further proves my theory that he's nothing but a mediocre Michael Pena. How he landed a role in Flags of Our Fathers, a war film light years ahead of Windtalkers, is beyond me. In one of the final scenes, where Nic Cages character (Enders) dies, I couldn't decide which actor was less believable. For your closest companion on the battlefield sacrificing his life for yours, you'd think he'd have a little more emotion as he says goodbye. Two dull leading actors severely hurt the more dramatic scenes. This film is a textbook example of clichés, predictable outcomes, crucial scenes ruined by mediocre acting, and so much more. The only reason I rated it a generous 4/10 was for the entertainment factor. If you discard historical content and the near insulting portrayal of war, the impressive (although sometimes overdone) amount of explosions and the abundance of extras can result in some very attractive shots. The bottom line is this movie is a very poorly done film in regards to the war genre, but as far as action goes its enough to keep you entertained. If you're a history buff like I am, you'll want to rip your hair out in the first fifteen minutes. If you're just looking for a solid action movie, this might just be enough.

To me, any war or sci-fi movie is a guaranteed winner. The construction of sets and direction or battles sequences and special effects all have to be at very high degrees in order to look even remotely real. In order for a war or sci-fi movie to be bad, the sets, special effects, and battles scenes all have to be poorly done. I have encountered some sci-fis that had poor CGI, but I have not yet seen a badly made war movie. Even heavily clichéd war movies have realistic violence and spectacular action sequences. I noticed Windtalkers got bad reviews, but everybody must admit it was good for what it had.Windtalkers is about a group of soldiers (including Nicolas Cage, Christian Slater, Mark Ruffalo, and Noah Emmerich) during World War II who must protect two Navajo soldiers from the Japanese, as they are the only ones that understand the codes in Navajo language. I am not a history guru nor an expert on any wars, so I very much enjoyed this. John Woo is an action master that did great action scenes and the acting is great by almost all. There was some bad acting, but most were good. Nicolas Cage was good, as this was before his string of bad movies like Ghost Rider and Bangkok Dangerous. He is our main character who is similar to Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now and Charlie Sheen in Platoon--all men are haunted by the horrors of war. The story is a little slow, but is sugarcoated with great action. Also, there are nice shots such as the opening scene as the camera hovers around mountains in the desert. The music, provided by legendary James Horner makes every little thing that much greater. What I saw critics and general reviews poke at the most was the fact that the Navajo soldiers were minor characters and that there was no "windtalking" or codecracking. That would be my biggest complaint. It is clear that this draws influence from previous war classics, mainly Platoon and Saving Private Ryan, and this may be inferior to those, but it is still and great flick.

I did not expect too much of this movie, especially after looking at the IMDb ranking. I watched the film and I read the reviews and I noticed the reviews are packed with senseless prejudice.Windtalkers is, in my opinion, an excellent film. It describes the importance of Navajo code talkers to the US army during World War II. At the same time it describes the view of the American army to these same Navajo soldiers who were just as other minorities seen as inferior.The two main aspects why I thoroughly enjoyed this movie: the excellent combination of John Woo's fantastic direction and the editing and cinematography. Both in big, wide shots and in close by scenes the movie is brilliantly made with great eye for detail with fantastic shots. Of course a number of scenes are not very realistic. Of course John Woo goes over the top completely with explosions, according to some. But search for the described battle: looks like they went over the top there as well.Second reason: as the main character, a marine traumatized by previous experiences and always justifying his actions because he followed his orders and at the same time doubting that principle, Cage showed again that he is a great actor. He was impressive! Never mind the reviews of people who are negative about the film because they don't like Woo and/or Cage. Never mind the people who don't like the film because they only wanted to see Navajo heroics. This is a highly underrated film.