Product: Flyboys [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 3.0
Well, I Enjoyed It, Anyway
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!