Critic Reviews
Windtalkers (2002) Rank 3 Reviews
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based on (293) reviews
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Bad Movie Night
Since World War II has long been a staple of Hollywood, the latest war movies require some sort of a novel twist (Private Ryan: The rescue of one soldier for PR purposes / Tuskeegee Airmen: The black air warriors / etc). Windtalker's twist is that it ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Bad Movie Night
Portland Oregonian (Shawn Levy)
Cage is superb as a hollowed-out, ferocious man of action chasing his demons recklessly with machine gun firing away. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Portland Oregonian (Shawn Levy)
San Francisco Chronicle (Mick LaSalle)
UpcomingDiscs.com (David Williams)
Reviewers Note: I reviewed this film earlier in its previous single-disc edition from MGM and after watching the new cut, I still feel very strongly about my initial reactions and therefore, I'm going to recycle the FILM portion of my old review. (The ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at UpcomingDiscs.com (David Williams)
DVD Clinic ("The Arrow")
During the1944 allied invasion of the Japanese island of Saipan, two Americans, unstable Enders (Cage) and nice guy Anderson (Slater) are assigned to baby-sit two Navajo Code Talkers on the field. Code Talkers are Navajo US soldiers, who know a code ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at DVD Clinic ("The Arrow")
DVD Clinic ("Jason Coleman")
It’s the story of Navajo Indians, recruited to learn a wartime code that the Japanese could not break. It’s also the story of the soldiers who are assigned to protect them, but whose real orders are much more direct and morbid - “protect the code”. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at DVD Clinic ("Jason Coleman")
Moda Magazine (Katherine Brodsky)
ESpy.ca (Jayson Hopkins)
First of all we need to clarify that Wind Talkers is not a true story. It is loosely based on the events and experiences of soldiers involved with US military when it began using the Navajo language as a code. The problem was that American ground forces ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at ESpy.ca (Jayson Hopkins)
CinemaSpeak.com (Ryan Kugler)
John Woo, a hugely successful Hong Kong director who made the jump to Hollywood a decade ago, has had a hit and miss career ever since. His first American effort was the Van Damme vehicle Hard Target, toned-down Woo yes, but a hell of an action movie ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at CinemaSpeak.com (Ryan Kugler)
UpcomingDiscs.com (Aric Mitchell)
Hollywood can sometimes be so enthused to cash in on a certain type of film many decent projects looking to explore a worthwhile subject topple under the weight of the cash-grabbing, money-hungry throng. Such is the case with Director John Woo's ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at UpcomingDiscs.com (Aric Mitchell)
Nehring The Edge
Moovees.com (Jay Tierney)
The Onion (A.V. Club) (Keith Phipps)
Well matched both to the material and each other, Cage and Beach capture Windtalkers' true struggle, the fight to hold on to values like honor, friendship, and tenderness in an environment that demands otherwise. This is as much a Woo trademark as the ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at The Onion (A.V. Club) (Keith Phipps)
Film Values/Family Values (H. Arthur Taussig)
Salon (Stephanie Zacharek)
Windtalkers is the best of Woo's American movies, and the one with the sturdiest and most direct links to his earlier pictures. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Salon (Stephanie Zacharek)
Orlando Sentinel (Roger Moore)
[Woo] doesn't reinvent the war film with Windtalkers . But he does capitalize on the post- Private Ryan trend toward showing combat at its most brutal and personal. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Orlando Sentinel (Roger Moore)
Cinenganos (Luis Martinez)
Buena, pero....Woo pudo haberlo logrado, pero pequeños detalles y errores marcan la diferencia entre una gran cinta y un clásico de género. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Cinenganos (Luis Martinez)
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Jack Garner)
Woo, the modern master of action violence, gives the battle scenes the explosive intensity you'd expect. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Jack Garner)
UTK Daily Beacon (Greg Tershansy)
Fulvue Drive-in
Reel Criticism - Honest Reviews!
Washington Post (Desson Howe)
Washington Post (Stephen Hunter)
Greenwich Village Gazette (Eric Lurio)
A Guide to Current DVD (Aaron Beierle)
BeyondHollywood.com
DVD Authority.com ("Fusion3600")
FilmHobbit.com - Windtalkers Preview Review
Movie Roundtable
ninth symphony films
Movies for Guys
dvdfuture.com (George Castillo)
Almost Fabulous Movie Reviews
DVD Authority.com ("Fusion3600")
DVD Authority.com ("Fusion3600")
Sergeant Joe Enders (Nicholas Cage) is a Marine decorated with all kinds of honors, medals, and awards, but his most important mission lies ahead. After some trickery on his medical exams, the usually by the book soldier is allowed to return to service, ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at DVD Authority.com ("Fusion3600")
filmcritic.com (David Levine)
Reviewguy Online (Sean Chandler)
Minneapolis Star Tribune (Jeff Strickler)
The history is fascinating; the action is dazzling. They just don't work in concert. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Minneapolis Star Tribune (Jeff Strickler)
ViewLondon (Matthew Turner)
Earlier this year you couldn't move in cinemas without bumping into a war-themed movie of some kind, whether it was the shooty-shooty-bang-bang likes of Black Hawk Down, the blood-spattered 'drama' (with extra added gore!) of We Were Soldiers or the ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at ViewLondon (Matthew Turner)
San Jose Mercury News (Bruce Newman)
Despite the movie's overly simplistic view of the bigotry the Navajos faced in the military ... Windtalkers speaks of a love between men who have come to a place willing to die together. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at San Jose Mercury News (Bruce Newman)
Three Movie Buffs (Eric Nash)
Too often war movies are just about the violence. The characters are just stereotypes between action scenes. Here, the two leads grow from the experience. Although Saving Private Ryan is a great war movie, it does not have the character development of ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Three Movie Buffs (Eric Nash)
Lee's Movie Info (Lee Tistaert)
Seattle Times (Melanie McFarland)
This is one of the most intensely personal war films you will ever see. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Seattle Times (Melanie McFarland)
eFilmCritic.com (Erik Childress)
Windtalkers is the real deal and fans of those old school war epics shouldn’t feel guilty about enjoying the hell out of it. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at eFilmCritic.com (Erik Childress)
eFilmCritic Reviews
Based on a true story, Windtalkers explores a fascinating but little know bit of World War II history about a group of Navajo’s recruited by the marines to translate a code based on their language. The code was so valuable that each “Windtalker” ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at eFilmCritic Reviews
eFilmCritic.com (Andrew Howe)
A powerful and involving film that bears the unmistakeable imprint of the greatest action director of our time. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at eFilmCritic.com (Andrew Howe)
Reno Gazette-Journal (Forrest Hartman)
It’s tough to get worked up after watching superior films like Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers .” ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Reno Gazette-Journal (Forrest Hartman)
Reel Movie Critic (Pam Singleton)
The solemnity of Navajo land, where Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach) says goodbye to his family, gives way to close hand to hand combat in the Solomon Islands, where the enemy springs from the underbrush. A fierce and bloody fight takes place and in the hail of ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Reel Movie Critic (Pam Singleton)
Daily-Reviews.com (Stephen Cooke)
MGM's DVD of Windtalkers is a bare-bones affair, with only a handful of trailers as extras, but it's been announced that a more deluxe edition is on the way, so it's probably best to leave this disc on the shelf for now, or pick it up as a rental to ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Daily-Reviews.com (Stephen Cooke)
Mr. Brown's Movies (Michael Dequina)
Packs a strong amount of firepower--not only in terms of pyrotechnics, but also in emotional impact. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Mr. Brown's Movies (Michael Dequina)
Cinema in Focus (Denny Wayman and Hal Conklin)
The Land of Eric (Eric D. Snider)
Strip "Windtalkers" of all its excess debris and you've got a 90-minute, four-star film. As it is, it's too long and too unfocused. The trend continues: Movies have original ideas, but they get scared and retreat to familiar, heavily trod territory. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at The Land of Eric (Eric D. Snider)
ShowBIZ Data
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures presents a film directed by John Woo. Written by John Rice and Joe Batteer. Running time: 134 minutes. Rated R (for pervasive graphic war violence, and for language).
John Woo's Windtalkers , starring Nicolas Cage, Adam ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at ShowBIZ Data
ToxicUniverse.com (John Beachem)
There’s not much to Windtalkers. Like its score, it’s big, loud, obtrusive, and soulless. It tries to make ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at ToxicUniverse.com (John Beachem)
Filmtracks (Christian Clemmensen)
There have been a substantial number of comments claiming that
Windtalkers contains no satisfying theme. These accounts are simply
inaccurate at every level. While the score on the album does not introduce the
theme until about eight ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Filmtracks (Christian Clemmensen)
Film Threat, Hollywood's Indie Voice
Windtalkers arrives with the same based on a true story tag that has sunk many films that came before it and usually leaves the audience wishing that it wasn't based on a true story. Can you imagine Windtalkers director John Woo preparing for a ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Film Threat, Hollywood's Indie Voice
Entertainment Weekly
The U.S. government's use of Navajo Marines to transmit encrypted military information during the Pacific battles of World War II is one of those amazing, little-known sidebar stories of wartime ingenuity, patriotism, and bravery on which victory ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Entertainment Weekly
A Guide to Current DVD (Aaron Beierle)
MovieEye.com (David Litton)
DVDwolf (Rob Paul)
CountingDown.com review (Larry Carroll)
artechock (Rüdiger Suchsland)
The Filmsnobs (James Owen)
CultureDose.net (John Beachem)
DVDTown - Director's Edition (John J. Puccio)
DVDTown (John J. Puccio)
Deseret News, Salt Lake City
The Hot Button (David Poland)
Reel Film Reviews (David Nusair)
Popkorn Junkie's Review
BBC Films (Almar Haflidason)
MovieEye.com (David Litton)
Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)
MovieCritic.ca (Luc-Rock Paquin)
Christian Spotlight on the Movies
allesfilm.com (Magdalena Miedl)
DVD Town (John J. Puccio)
Guess the Gross
Entertainmentopia: We Are Entertainment -- Review
Frank's Reel Reviews
The Digital Bits
3 Black Chicks ("Bams")
MovieEye.com (Gareth Von Kallenbach)
musicOMH (Shawn Fitzgerald)
DVD Net (Adrian Turvey)
LoveHKFilm.com (Ross Chen)
Jiminy Critic (Ben Delbanco)
digitallyOBSESSED.com (Rich Rosell)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Citysearch (Ross Brooks)
A worthwhile, if excessively violent look at a piece of history that's rarely discussed. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Citysearch (Ross Brooks)
Movie-Vault.com (Oktay Ege Kozak)
The Phantom Tollbooth
Wolf Entertainment Guide (William Wolf)
movies.zertinet.com
The Cranky Critic (Chuck Schwartz)
DVD Verdict (Dan Mancini)
CountingDown.com (Larry Carroll)
Windtalkers takes a great, original story about an unrecognized group of true American heroes and wraps it with layer upon layer of war cliches until it suffocates. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at CountingDown.com (Larry Carroll)
d+kaz. Intelligent Movie Reviews (Daniel Kasman)
Considering how many times its release date was pushed back, the financial problems director John Woo had with MGM and the fact that Woo has never had anything like total creative freedom in making American movies, it’s a wonder that Windtalkers ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at d+kaz. Intelligent Movie Reviews (Daniel Kasman)
Journal News (Westchester, NY) (Marshall Fine)
Feels flabby and long, an intimate story trapped in a big-budget body. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Journal News (Westchester, NY) (Marshall Fine)
hybridmagazine.com
“Is there a separate line for press?” I asked the theater manager after seeing the endless, serpentine mass of moviegoers waiting anxiously for entry to the screening room. It did not surprise me that there was such an enthusiastic response to the ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at hybridmagazine.com
Dallas Morning News (Philip Wuntch)
The screenplay sabotages the movie's strengths at almost every juncture. All the characters are stereotypes, and their interaction is numbingly predictable. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Dallas Morning News (Philip Wuntch)
The Trades (Jim Pappas)
CultureDose.net (John Nesbit)
Planet Sick-Boy (Jon Popick)
MovieFreak.com (John Teves)
The Dual Lens (Ian Whitney)
PopMatters (Cynthia Fuchs)
Shadows on the Wall (Rich Cline)
Combustible Celluloid (Jeffrey M. Anderson)
Houston Community Newspapers (Gary Brown)
Philadelphia City Paper (Sam Adams)
Montreal Film Journal (Kevin N. Laforest)
Reeling Reviews with Robin & Laura Clifford
Screen It! Entertainment Reviews for Parents
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Imaginative and frequently thrilling, and the love-hate relationship of its protagonists is quite compelling; Woo is always at his best in portraying the complexities of male bonding under intense pressure and violence. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Radio Free Entertainment
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Movie Magazine International
Mr. Brown's Movie Site (Michael Dequina)
DVD Verdict (Michael Rankins)
Sidekick Magazine
Film Freak Central
Reel.com (Tor Thorsen)
Fantastica Daily - Interviews with director and cast (Staci Wilson )
Political Film Society
MediaCircus.net
MediaCircus (Anthony Leong)
MovieFreak.com (Sara M. Fetters)
The Boston Phoenix
ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
Windtalkers is one of the least distinguished entries into the new genre of war movies. This film proves that more is needed than visceral displays of battle carnage, digitally amplified gunfire and explosions, and a camera that won't keep ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
Boston Globe (Leighton Klein)
The code talkers and their guardians - Beach and Cage, Willie and Slater - do the best they can with the oddly flat-footed script, but their dynamics don't really have a place in Woo's universe. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Boston Globe (Leighton Klein)
Philadelphia Inquirer (Carrie Rickey)
While I don't always have the stomach for Woo's viscera or the heart for his pure, angelic heroes and impure, diabolical villains, I found myself responding to the context and subtext of Windtalkers while closing my eyes through what one might call its ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Philadelphia Inquirer (Carrie Rickey)
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (Rick Groen)
Windtalkers is to movies what Paris is to weather -- if you don't like the show you're watching, just wait a minute and an entirely different picture will blow into view. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (Rick Groen)
USA TODAY
Capably made and certainly impresses by carrying its length, but it doesn't expand 60 years of World War II screen literature by very much. ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at USA TODAY
Harry Caul
If you think about it, Nic Cage is the perfect Wooingactor. A guy who knows how to project an attitudejust be careful when you ask him to act as, to quote Forrest Gump, `You never know what you're going to get.' Thankfully Cage turns in one of his more ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Harry Caul
Common Guy's Movie Reviews (Paul Hall)
Homer Yen
Herein lies one of the big questions of this film. The plan in which they disguise a soldier as Japanese requires one of the windtalkers to don the enemy uniform. If you know why windtalkers must be protected at all times, this becomes an improbable ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Homer Yen
Qwipster's Movie Reviews (Vince Leo)
WINDTALKERS seems like an
odd vehicle to catch the interest of over-the-top action director John Woo in
many ways. Based on true events, it's more of a tale conducive to human drama
than in incredible stunt pieces and yin-yang good/evil ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Qwipster's Movie Reviews (Vince Leo)
Ozus' World Movie Reviews (Dennis Schwartz)
REVIEWED ON 6/20/2002 GRADE: C Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ http://www.sover.net/~ozus/index.htm Click here to move around the site Home Page / Index Cinema Links Long Reviews ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Ozus' World Movie Reviews (Dennis Schwartz)
Hollywood Report Card (Ross Anthony)
Grainy expansive vistas of the Four Corners
(Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah) region span
across the screen as a handful of Navajo men say
goodbye to their families. The score echoing those of ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Hollywood Report Card (Ross Anthony)
Movieman's Guide to the Movies (Brian Oliver)
The trailers for Windtalkers proclaimed the unknown heroes of World War II, the Navajo Tribes who were used as a code that the Japanese could not break. Unfortunately aside from some character background of one of the "windtalkers", I did not learn ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Movieman's Guide to the Movies (Brian Oliver)
Steve Rhodes
Oh yeah, there's also a subplot about Navajo "code talkers," which is nominally the main theme of the story. This original part of the picture could have been fascinating. In a strong and touching performance, Adam Beach plays Private Ben Yahzee, the ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at Steve Rhodes
JoBlo's Movie Emporium ("JoBlo")
Interesting enough, with some decent war stuff, a nice connection between the two lead Marines (no, not that kind of connection!) and a story worth telling, but at the end of the day, nothing particularly spectacular, especially when you consider the ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at JoBlo's Movie Emporium ("JoBlo")
Bucket Reviews (Danny Baldwin)
The Movie Mom (Nell Minow)
"Windtalkers" is not the right name for John Woo's new film. A more apt title would be "Sergeant Enders and the Windtalkers," because the film mainly focuses on the complicated, half-crazed main character rather than the Navajos recruited as Marines in ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at The Movie Mom (Nell Minow)
ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
Since arriving in the United States from Hong Kong, director John Woo has primarily helmed popcorn action movies like Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2. Windtalkers represents his first English-language foray into "weighty" filmmaking. While the war movi ...read the complete Windtalkers movie review at ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
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