Product Description: Inspired by true events, tells the story of the Lafayette Escadrille, a group of American men who volunteered to fight for the French before the U.S. entered World War I and became the country's first fighter pilots. Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure Rating: PG13 Release Date: 18-SEP-2007 Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com:
World War I aviation action gets an impressive digital upgrade in Flyboys, a welcome addition to the "dogfight" sub-genre that includes such previous war-in-the-air films like Hell's Angels, Wings, and The Blue Max. While those earlier films had the advantage of real and genuinely dangerous flight scenes (resulting, in some cases, in fatal accidents during production), Flyboys takes full (and safe) advantage of the digital revolution, with intensely photo-realistic recreations of WWI aircraft, authentic period structures, and CGI environments requiring a total of 850 digital effects shots, resulting in an abundance of amazing images, many of them virtually indistinguishable from reality. Unfortunately, the film's technical achievement is more impressive than its screenplay, which conventionally and predictably tells the fact-based story, set in France in 1916, of the daring young pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille, a pioneering French air-combat unit that welcomed American enlistees prior to the United States' entry into the war.
Up there with pearl harborGreat movie Great movie. Better love story than pearl harbor. Blu-Ray is the way to go. Great action with Great acting makes this movie worth watching again and again.
Solid movie Yes, it's cliched. Yes, it's predictable. And yes, there are some liberties taken with realism. But hey, it's a good movie. Solid fare: good heroes, bad villains, lots of dogfighting (and the dogfighting is really good, albeit unrealistically fast for the planes of the time), some romance, and no idiotic Hollywood attempts at artsiness for its own sake.
Acting is pretty decent, especially from the girl and the French captain. The movie is even clean (i.e. no sex scenes!).
I give it 4 out of 5. Most guys will like it. Rent it, crack open a beer, and enjoy the evening.
No Other Movie Like It This is a one of a kind movie. War, flight, history, a bit of very tasteful romance (trust me, I hate romance stories in movies where the main plot is action and adventure), realistic, and fun to watch with anyone. My dad and I loved this movie, definitely an all time favorite for me.
"Inspired by History." Visuals: 5 stars. History: 2 stars. "Flyboys" has great visuals, but the history is sorely lacking, and the story is really a bit trite (right down to "boy meets girl," and so on). That's too bad, because the real story of the Lafayette Escadrille had more than enough excitement, which is even recognized by one of the movie's writers -- "we didn't have to make these guys Hollywood." The question remains why the writers did just that.
I recommend "Flyboys," but only in the Collector's 2 disc edition - -and watch disc 2, "The True Story of the Lafayette Escadrille" first. You'll find out what did, and did not, really happen.
Have any of you who said this was good seen Blue Max? Obviously by all the 5 star reviews who think the dogfight seens are great have never seen the Blue Max. This is what WWI airplanes flew like, not the cartoon in Flyboys. The only disapointment in the Blue Max is George Peppard is not german. Don't buy flyboys, watch it on cable.
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