Flyboys [Blu-ray]
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Movie Reviews of Flyboys [Blu-ray]
Movie Review: Excellent movie and sound is superb
Summary: 4 Stars
If you're a fan of WWI dogfights...this is an excellent movie... and Blue Ray just makes for a better viewing experience. If you are hooked to an audio system... the sound is incredible.
Movie Review: Good Buy
Summary: 4 Stars
It isn't the best movie in the world, but it is definitely one that should be watched in HD with Surround Sound. It is a must for my library.Movie Review: Watchable World War One Dogfight Movie
Summary: 3 Stars
There's something both romantic and intimidating about the mechanized slaughter that plagued Europe at the beginning of the 20th century during what that generation called 'the GREAT War' and we call World War One. While French and Germans were slaughtering each other on the ground by the millions with the help of first generation tanks, early model machine guns and clouds of mustard gas, some privileged few were confronting their enemies in the air, riding on small, fragile, underpowered but deadly airplanes, trying to obliterate opponents riding the same or protecting/attacking bomb-carrying larger, motorized flying machines or giant, bloated, terror-inspiring airships.
It's a historical fact that a handful of American took sides in this battle at a time their own country, the United States, was officially neutral. They decided to help the French side by forming their own Escadrille Lafayette of flying knights. The Escadrille, famous for its bravery AND its partying while off duty, distinguished itself at Verdun and many of its members were recognized as Aces, some receiving valuable French medals for bravery.
The movie attempts to follow, to the extent that a fiction movie can, the historical record. We see the initial members as they make their decision to fight for France, we watch them train and then we watch them fight the Germans. It's fighter vs. fighter, fighter attacking the enemy's bombers, fighter protecting their own bombers, fighter attacking the Zeppelin and fighter strafing the enemy air base and, on several occasions, we watch air duels between Aces on either side. In addition, there is some romance, a tiny bit of racial tension and we watch some personal problems as they are dealt with by the squad's members.
This is a very visual, CGI enhanced to the point of almost cartoonish-looking movie when it comes to the numerous dogfight scenes and its most attractive feature is the air battles. The scruffy and fragile-looking French fighters, the intimidating, red-colored German Fokkers, the bombers, the Zeppelin, they all look spectacular in ways that only today's video enhancement technologies can produce. One may conclude that, maybe there's too much fighting and too little character development but this is not a psychological drama. It's about aerial fighting and this is what we get to see in a movie that comes pretty close to being a WW1 documentary. All the little conflicts between the squad's members or between them and the French military or the other American volunteers are insignificant when viewed within the context of the war against the Germans.
The movie is good at what it attempts to deliver - in this case, the dogfights - but, after a while, the fighting gets repetitive and the movie seems to be stretching a bit too long. This is as close to a pure dogfight action movie as it gets.
Recommended as a rental or even as a keeper for any lover of war action videos.
P.S. While many of the details are fictionalized enhancements or pure inventions, it is historically true that the squadron had lions as pets. The movie shows us one. In fact, they had TWO lion cubs named Whiskey and Soda.
Movie Review: Well, I Enjoyed It, Anyway
Summary: 3 Stars
I think people rag on this movie a little too much. If it's not as good as the reigning classic of World War One dogfight films, 1966's The Blue Max, then at least it was a notch above most of what sat beside it in the multiplex in the fortnight it was out. (How many reviewers, seeking originality, headlined their write-ups "Bombs Away"? More than a few.) Movies about the First World War are almost nonexistent today and I salute the courage it took to go out on a limb to tell a forgotten story.
All that said, yes, the technical inaccuracies, which I won't list here, did irk sensibilities a time or ten, and one couldn't help but feel the plot was something that got in the way of the special effects, which were often little short of spectacular, but the funny thing is I've found that the very points which instigated the greatest number of complaints about this film turned out to be those things which actually were based on the historical reality of the Escadrille de Lafayette, its experiences and its members. Go figure.
Flyboys isn't going to be a classic but what is? I personally think we're residing in the age of the anti-classic. Flyboys is watchable, has some good parts, and means well even when it comes up short. I admire the effort to produce this kind of low-appeal movie in the age of "a blockbuster or else" film making and am glad I own this title.
And, oh, yeah, that's NOT Stephen Baldwin in there, guys!
Movie Review: Movie is fun, blu ray would not play
Summary: 3 Stars
I've seen the movie before and liked it, so I purchased a blu ray version for my player. Popped it in and won't read the disc. Changed disc to Fearless... no problem.
Get the movie, be cautious of blu ray.