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Flyboys
User Score
5.2 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 34 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 34
  3. Negative: 12 out of 34

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  1. Bobbie
    Sep 26, 2006
    0
    An awful effort by all involved. ‘No Doze’ anyone? Don't waste your time.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  2. [Anonymous]
    Feb 3, 2007
    6
    Flyboys isn't a disaster, one one can't help but be dissapointed. It tries to be an epic, but it's WWI exploited for popcorn, and not for the best. The dialogue and script are cliched and lackluster, and despite the battle footage, the realism of WWI seems to be all but missing. Only cassidy's death has the resonance of the epic. For some decent dogfights, Flyboys is worth a spin, but it won't resonate or impress, just pass the time.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. JoeL.
    Oct 6, 2006
    7
    Some nice dogfight scenes, some interesting historical facts, but mixed in with some very silly scenes in which Franco gets to play the hero. The movie ultimately suffers from the Hollywood format syndrome because as soon as we met the characters we could easily predict what would happen to all of them.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  4. Linda
    Mar 1, 2007
    3
    Heard how good it was, BORING, a little romance, want to see a great flick? check out The Guardian!!!! That was awesome!
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  5. philipt.
    Jun 5, 2007
    8
    Great film, with amazing dog fights! I will buy this on DVD!
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  6. TonyB.
    Aug 31, 2008
    8
    This is among the more underrated films I've seen in a long time. It was a pleasant surprise that deserved far more critical and commercial success than it got. Well written, directed, acted, photographed, edited and scored, "Flyboys" was both exciting and quite moving as well.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  7. Warmonger
    Sep 22, 2006
    7
    It's about time...Flyboys is a pretty good movie! it may not be in the same caliber as such films, as the Blue Max or Richthofen and Brown but the story is pretty good and the dogfights, although cg, are something to behold!
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  8. Elena
    Sep 23, 2006
    0
    Horsefeathers.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  9. DavidL.
    Sep 23, 2006
    7
    Much better than i thought it would be. It's a fun movie in time of not so good movies. It's not tame enough to take small children, but it's a fun movie to see and I can recommend it.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  10. JeffH.
    Sep 23, 2006
    2
    Overall, I want to like this film. But to be honest, it's too contrived and too long to be good, and too predictable to be mediocre. The acting seems overall stiff (aside from the French Captain), and the flight scenes are only good when it's the low to the ground shots; the higher the planes, the more fake it looks. Keep this film in the hanger, there are better ways to spend 2 and a half hours.… Expand
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  11. DominickC.
    Sep 25, 2006
    10
    I just want to say that I truly enjoyed myself at this movie. My wife and I came out with smiles on our faces and felt great! This movie had something that a lot of movies don't have much of anymore...and that is a good story. You care for these characters; care if they live or die. You feel afraid for them as they dogfight in those rickety planes. Elements like honor and country and compassion for others are seen throughout. A well-done treat! Don't miss it.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  12. KingChad
    Sep 25, 2006
    0
    So bad a movie that it will be gone from the theaters within 3 weeks.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  13. PatC.
    Sep 26, 2006
    4
    Lost in the disjointed melodrama and infuriating musical score is the wonderful job done with costumes and sets. Forget all the old black & white historical record - I believe this is the way World War I in France looked.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  14. TheWhiskeyMan
    Sep 27, 2006
    1
    Too awful for words. Flat and boring.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  15. GarethC
    Oct 28, 2007
    1
    This movie makes Pearl Harbour look like a classic. It is awful, and the script juvenile. Unbearably contrived! The dogfights look good, but the movie is painful to watch.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  16. guy!
    Jun 11, 2007
    10
    This is almost better than Independence Day! must...buy...soooooooon.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  17. GrantC.
    Jul 29, 2008
    10
    If you were a flight simulator ace, this is an excellent film. It truly picks out what it's like to go to war as a fighter pilot back in the early 1900's. Great Overall!
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  18. MarkB.
    Nov 29, 2006
    7
    Too bad they marred this otherwise very entertaining World War I action drama by banishing the cigarettes from it! Like Pearl Harbor and many other recent period pieces (but, thankfully, NOT Clint Eastwood's Flags Of Our Fathers) the producers decided to allow C. Everett Koop and that humorless twerp played by William H. Macy in Thank You For Smoking act as their movie's very own personal Joseph L. Breen, and thus we get lots of bar scenes on the French wartime front in which lots of flyers have plenty of shots and snorts but no smokes. Besides the obvious self-contradictory absurdity of allowing the movie's heroes to inflict all sorts of abuse upon their livers but not their lungs, this is a regrettable concession to political correctness in a movie that admirably makes no others. It's a war film marked by no ironic subtext whatsoever as expatriate American flyers, fully committed to what they're doing and the rightness of it, enjoy wiping out their German opponents and racking up kills. Not only is this a marked contrast to the 1980s mini-genre of historical dramas (the Young Guns movies and the incredibly ludicrous and loathsome Mobsters) that loaded their casts with Brat Packers and their scripts with attitudinal anachronisms, but it also is at philosophical odds with most WW I films made during the 1930s (Ace of Aces, The Dawn Patrol and of course All Quiet On The Western Front) which, being horrified reactions to the war's massive amounts of technologically-produced carnage and having been made BEFORE America was aware of just how evil and dangerous Hitler was, were as passionately antiwar as Johnny Got His Gun. Flyers was quite courageous to, in this day and time, cling to the concept of any kind of warfare as heroic, noble and even romantic, and for that reason (if not also because World War I hasn't exactly been a pop-culture touchstone since Snoopy took on The Red Baron in the late 1960s) it was quickly and inevitably shot down in flames at the box office. That's a shame; Flyboys is one of the most distinctive-LOOKING commercial films of 2006, with a tinted picture postcard feel that fully matches its period; it juggles its storylines and characters well; it features convincing airborne sequences and a sweet, resonant love story on the ground, and it sports nice work by Spider-Man's James Franco, using his James Deanish sensitivity to good advantage, and especially by Jean Reno (The Pink Panther) who, as the kind of commander I'll bet all ex-military personnel WISH they'd had, projects in spades that elusive quality that many actors try for but very few actually attain: effortless cool.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  19. KeithL
    Oct 14, 2006
    8
    I really enjoyed the movie and found the aircraft footage excellent. I went with 5 other people and everyone of them treally enjoyed the movie.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  20. ScottG.
    Sep 24, 2006
    8
    While I would've liked them to spend more time on characterization, they pulled out the stops on action. This was exactly what I was looking for at the movies that night. I'm still stunned that people would volunteer to fly in combat, given the unlikelihood they'd return...
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  21. TylerA.
    Feb 11, 2007
    9
    This is a great action movie, the only reason I didn't give it a full ten is i think they could have made the part on the ground mare interesting than just prostitutes and kids.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  22. SteveC.
    Feb 17, 2007
    10
    I thought it was a perfect WWI Flying movie...exactly what I was looking for and with excellent dogfight scenes and a much better than expected storyline as well.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  23. UnzarJ.
    Mar 16, 2007
    3
    This movie was in desparate need of a lead actor that has charisma. Uninvolving, to say the least.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  24. ChadS.
    Dec 18, 2006
    4
    If we had peace in our time, "Flyboys" might've flown, and not blown. It's something of a reactionary film because it repositions "war as an adventure", as opposed to "war as hell". This is the sort of film they made "back in the day" to seduce young men into enlisting. Join the armed forces and frolic in the country with a hot French babe, but since this is a PG-13 offering, the frolic comes with orphans. In the funniest scene(of the unintentional variety), Blaine(James Franco) gives the French urchins a joyride in his plane, who you'd think might be deathly afraid of aircraft since the Germans bombed their house and killed their parents. "Flyboys", to its credit, does make an attempt to be transgressive when Reed(Martin Henderson) talks candidly about the horrors of war, but the tone never truly changes even as the bodies tally up. "Flyboys" isn't boring, just faintly offensive.… Expand
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  25. MadDad
    Nov 23, 2011
    8
    Heavily underrated movie. Good story with an interesting topic: WW1 flight aces are a rare film topic to find. I especially liked the dogfights which were pretty intense. Worth watching!
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Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
47 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 22 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 22
  3. Negative: 4 out of 22
  1. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Bill Gallo
    50
    Here is the War to End All Wars seen from on high--as it was way back when, in "Wings" or the Howard Hughes "Hell's Angels"--a world apart from the grim, futile slaughterhouses of Verdun and the Marne. Among these combatants, you won't find much "All Quiet on the Western Front"–style despair, and the paths of glory are unsullied by doubt or disillusionment.
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  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Gregory Kirshling
    42
    This is a lost opportunity on an epic scale. The actors are so styled and the dogfights so drippy with CG that, as a period piece, the movie almost looks like it's set in the future.
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  3. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    70
    A highly enjoyable programmer about those brave young men and their rickety flying machines.
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