Product: Flyboys [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 3.0
The Blazing Angels of WWI
James Franco (most popular as Harry Osborn in the Spiderman movie series) carries this movie with his portrayal of Blaine Rawlings...a soft-spoken cowboy that can play rough when he needs to and fly a single engine WWI fighter like there's no tomorrow.Tony Bill somehow directed this could-have-been-a-TV-movie-or-mini-series onto the big screen for an approximate $13 million box office take. After DVD sales I suppose the $$$ intake will be better than TV so what the heck do I know.But the acting and story execution are such that you'd think it was made for TV. The action scenes are really fun, but questionably believable as the aces chat with each other over their flying machines in mid air and hoot and holler like they're in a rodeo.The ground scenes are mostly tough too watch. One ground battle scene is so outrageously unbelievable that the credibility meter flat-lines for a few minutes there at that point in the movie. And then there's the underlying love story that is so poorly done and unnecessary that cutting it completely would not have taken away one iota of the true story of a group of the first WWI fighter pilots.This could easily have been a 90-minute movie, but Hollywood for whatever reason has decided not to release a film under the 120 minute mark anymore. In Flyboys you'll find yourself hooting and hollering for more dogfight action as the ground scenes roll on.Overall...I didn't not like the movie. I was entertained. But, given a second chance, I'd wait to see this where it was meant to be: on TV (or cable).P.S.--Franco's character Rawlings should have had a Green Goblin painted on the side of his plane instead of his ranch insignia...now that would have been cool.