Review of Flyboys (2006) by Bernard A — 17 Jun 2009

High production values and crisp cinematography elevates this WWI action flick. It's a beautiful piece of eye candy for sure. Now if only the filmmakers could of come up with a lot more interesting stuff for the pilots to do when they WEREN'T flying.

But having just recently watched Howard Hughes' 1930 equivalent to this - Hell's Angels - makes for an interesting comparison. Despite the 80 year difference between the two films I thought that the flying scenes in Flyboys were not much more of an improvement really. Howard Hughes employed actual planes which IMO imparted a gritty realism to his action scenes. Yes, some scenes looked fake because of the miniature models used at times...but I thought the same could be said of the CGI used in Flyboys. There is even a bombing scene in Flyboys which actually looked exactly the same as in Hell's Angels that I think the SFX guys were actually paying homage to the Hughes' film!

Likewise, as in the earlier film - the weak point was when the story had the pilots on the ground. Hell's Angel had two brothers caught in a love triangle with Jean Harlow's character. In Flyboys, the main drama tried to focus on the love story between one pilot (James Franco) and a french girl (Jennifer Decker). No fair, really, comparing Ms. Decker to Jean Harlow - a Hollywood legend.

Both films also have a scene involving a zeppelin... but Hell's Angels' zeppelin scene is a classic IMO. No comparison there either.

While Flyboys is a nice popcorn movie diversion...mmmm, I much rather prefer Hell's Angels overall.