Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Angel of the Skies" or "Wings of Honour" is a 100-minute movie from South Africa and so far the most known work by writer and director Christopher-Lee dos Santos. According to IMDb right now, the main language in here is German, but looking at the cast names and the fact that almost none of the characters in here are German I doubt this is correct. This film plays during World War II in its entirety pretty much and we follow a couple bomber pilots. The focus, however, is really just on one as we also find out about his background in terms of love, family, plans etc. The enemy's ruthlessness is depicted in some scenes as the bad guys kill an innocent woman for the sake of it. But it all felt relatively shallow and not too deep. I found this was a generic, stereotypical war movie that offered nothing that hasn't been done in other films already over the years. Then again, maybe I am a bit biased as I am not a fan of the genre at all. I usually care for the political schemes and figures, but rarely for the military and war action. And is this one here is packed with the latter, I never really developed any interest in it. Besides, I also felt that there were some scenes of severe overacting, especially by the actress who plays our hero's love interest. But the other actors, including the lead, weren't much better, even if they weren't overacting. So yeah, these areas that actually interest me were also not executed particularly well, so that I could say this makes up for the forgettable action scenes. All in all, this is a very mediocre product here and I hope the South African filmmaker I mentioned earlier can step things up in the future. He will have to in order to have a long and successful career in the industry. But I have hope as he is still pretty young. As for his work here, I don't recommend the watch. Thumbs down.

tressurendlovu I was interested to learn that we have a South African World War 2 movie making its world premiere at the 2013 Durban International Film Festival in South Africa.Now, the thing with most war movies, and in particular those depicting the Second World War, is that they show the brutality of that dark period in human history, and through that brutality weave in an element of optimism and hope.This is exactly what I expected when I sat down to view Christopher-Lee Dos Santos' Angel of the Skies.Dos Santos' movie contained all the elements that make war movies good and enjoyable, including a clearly defined hero and the beautiful woman he leaves at home in order to fight for the honour and glory of his country, along with, above all, the ruthless Germans who kill with little, if any, pity.The opening credits for Angel in the Skies are nostalgic, all very 1940s. The screen is illuminated in glorious black and white, with newspaper articles from the period.The wonderful credits, though, were instantly shot down by the poorly executed opening sequence showing a couple of aircraft engaged in a dogfight. It was poorly animated compared with scenes that followed.Dos Santos made many more questionable decisions in making his film, including bad accents (and actors) topped with horrible special effects, all ultimately done in by a weak script.On several occasions, the pace of the film dragged. Numerous scenes just did not do anything to progress the narrative or help develop the characters – even more so when it's a gratuitous sex scene.The plot of the movie is that during the height of the conflict, when Britain declares war on Germany, a South African pilot, flight Lieutenant Officer Earl Kirk volunteers to serve in the Royal Air Force, leaving behind his pregnant fiancée to protect and serve the British Empire.However, while flying over Europe, the Germans shoot down the plane he and his crew are flying. They land on German soil.Action dominates the film's romantic narrative. At one point I had completely forgotten that a fiancée back home had been introduced.Apart from its opening credits, the film's only vaguely redeeming feature was the score.

petarmatic This a solid air force WWII film. It goes well with the computer games my kids used to play when they were little.I enjoyed this film, special effects were not up to the par. Was it like this in the real war? Acting is sometimes good, sometimes bad, I am not sure which way it is swaying.The scenes of crash landing should of been done better, you can see it was some sort of special effect which did not turn out the best.Plot is similar to any other WWII films of this type.Camera work, is sometimes excellent, like the scene when they are running in the forest. Sometimes not so good, like in the plane sometimes.If you like good WWII action film this one is for you.

collioure_bee If you are going to make a film paying tribute to the South Africans that volunteered and fought in WWII then at least make an attempt to do it well.The film opened well enough, with a CGI dogfight over the Channel but it plummeted downhill from there. The CGI used wasn't a problem for me, it saves money and there aren't many WWII planes left to play with. The film was so full of holes it took away any sense of respectability.The first problem was the acting, particularly the pub scene. Lots of wood speaking with very strange accents and it didn't endear me to the cast as it was supposed to. Then we had an RAF bombing raid flying during the day. This was the job of the Americans, the RAF went at night. They went with no fighter escort and the side gunner hanging out of the side opening was ridiculous.After the plane went down, the crew broke all the rules of getting home, they traveled by day and slept at night, no one keeping watch, all sleeping. They also used a barn on a farm in Germany in an area they knew they were being hunted. It just got more laughable. Two go out to rescue a captured mate, taking a short cut given to them by the farmer's wife, and manage to run through and catch up to a motor vehicle and overpower it. They manage to shoot a German with a revolver while a German soldier with a machine gun missed them from the same distance. OK. This is now showing the Allies were great and the Germans useless. There was also an SS Captain who was every comic book cliché an SS man could be. There was a lot more to criticize but let's just say I was willing the SS to catch them quickly and put an end to the film. I really didn't care about the most unlikeable aircrew I've seen in a film.All in all. Bad story, badly done and I've seen better acting at AmDram. Forget it.