Flyboys

Flyboys Movie Reviews

1.  
    RhondaSReviewed at 04:25PM on 11 May 2007Fly Boys - James Franco was fantastic! He has so much of the James Dean characteristics that he fits this kind of role to a tee. He acted brilliantly as usual and his leading man capabilities are endless. James Franco was a... more perfect match for this role. Martin Henderson actually wasn?t horrible to watch, his acting has certainly improved from his days on Shortland Street, but as much as he tries to be a serious actor, he just comes off wrong and also his character?s pet lion was random, probably true to life but completely out of place. The flight sequences were fantastic. They were very heavily reliant on CG but the choreography of the sequences was flawless. This film is based on a true story, so I can?t critique the storyline too much but there were flaws in the writing, and flaws in the elaboration of the story itself. Overall this was a great film to watch.
2. SpindleReviewed at 10:27PM on 27 Apr 2007Heroics Gone PC - I would rather have seen a movie about Keith Caldwell, New Zealand?s top scoring fighter ace of WW1, (25 kills), one of many kiwis who flew with the British. Flyboys is a rather poor substitute for this but is still a... more reasonable effort. I liked the flying sequences despite them being CGI, and the storyline is ok in a contrived sort of way. The Americans did fly with the French in this squadron and other historic details such as the silly training and thin front line are acceptable in an ?inspired by? movie context. What is harder to ignore is that the Americans are such a strange bunch. The US had no quarrel with either side and no reason to join the war until Germany started unrestricted submarine warfare on their shipping. Those Americans already involved were the gung-ho adventure types whose attitude glorifies war and as such are not welcome in a movie made in today?s climate. A pity really because an element of excitement went with them