GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

DVD and Video

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 



 

Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Flyboys
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Flyboys reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 47 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
4.9 out of 10
based on 22 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 30 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for war action violence and some sexual content

Starring James Franco, Jean Reno, Philip Winchester, Martin Henderson, Abdul Salis, Jennifer Decker, Tyler Labine, and David Ellison

Flyboys, the first World War I aviation film in over 40 years, is inspired by the epic, courageous tale of the American young men who would become known as the legendary Lafayette Escadrille. They were ordinary boys who volunteered for the First World War looking for adventure, and in the process, they became heroes. Never before has a movie so accurately portrayed the thrill and danger of the aerial dogfights that played such an integral role in the Allied resistance. (MGM)


GENRE(S): Action  |  Adventure  |  Drama  |  War  
WRITTEN BY: Phil Sears
Blake T. Evans (also story)
David S. Ward
 
DIRECTED BY: Tony Bill  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: January 30, 2007 
Theatrical: September 22, 2006 
RUNNING TIME: 139 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: France / USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

70
LA Weekly Scott Foundas
A highly enjoyable programmer about those brave young men and their rickety flying machines.
Read Full Review
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
As imaginatively as some of them are staged, the action scenes are never authentically gripping. This seems to be the hidden handicap of our new digital filmmaking era in which all big action sequences are generated in the computer and look vaguely like cartoons.
Read Full Review
63
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
While the aerial dogfights are handsome and apparently historically accurate, right down to the tracer bullets that leave graceful, crisscrossing trails in the clouds, they have a video-game feel.
Read Full Review
63
Boston Globe Ty Burr
The movie's straightforward and ingratiating, and as pretty-boy history lessons go, it's a lot less obnoxious than "Pearl Harbor."
Read Full Review
63
Premiere Glenn Kenny
Part of what makes these kind of war movies such cinematic comfort food (aside from the moral certainty they strive to convey) is their familiarity. But I wonder if said familiarity is what compels contemporary filmmakers to overstuff the material -- Flyboys is a good two hours and 20 minutes.
Read Full Review
60
The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
A decidedly old-fashioned war film that reaches for epic sweep but is often bogged down in cliched drama and two-dimensional characters.
Read Full Review
60
Variety Todd McCarthy
Lovingly and knowledgeably made by director Tony Bill, who got his pilot's license as a teenager, pic nonetheless has a lightweight, airbrushed feel; despite the brutal dogfights and inevitable deaths, there's little gravity or resonance.
Read Full Review
58
The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
There's something almost perversely old-fashioned about Flyboys.
Read Full Review
50
The New York Times Nathan Lee
Despite its empty head and arduous length, Flyboys is ever so nice, in the manner of a Norman Rockwell illustration. The director, Tony Bill, may not be a philosopher but he is a gentleman, moving things along with a tidy, well-mannered hand. In another context, such politesse might feel tonic. Given the state of things, it’s nearly toxic.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Just about everything in the video-gamey World War I picture Flyboys rings false, although the planes certainly are terrific.
Read Full Review
50
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
While the music slops and churns and the ground-level bathos rises, the aerial stuff is occasionally stirring.
Read Full Review
50
Village Voice Bill Gallo
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.
Read Full Review
50
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Flyboys is so schematic and contrived, you can anticipate exactly what scene is going to come next, and who will be the next to die in combat, once you latch onto the structure of the script, which has all the inventiveness and ingenuity of a flow chart.
Read Full Review
50
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Shot like a Disney period piece (prettily, with spiffy props, shiny vintage vehicles, and costumes just back from the cleaners), Flyboys introduces its squadron the old-fashioned way: with character-establishing setups.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The aerial dogfights are thrilling, but the script seems to have been written by Snoopy.
Read Full Review
50
San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego
Besides some fine dogfight sequences, it often feels threadbare, just an exercise in recycling.
Read Full Review
42
Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirshling
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.
Read Full Review
40
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
While director Bill nails the sheer spectacle of squads of SPADs dovetailing in flames into the wide blue yonder, the earthbound action (much as it was in another sputtering epic, Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor") is strictly laissez faire.
Read Full Review
38
New York Post Kyle Smith
The computer-generated flying effects are the only reason to see the movie, but at some point somebody left the computer on too long, so it went ahead and spat out the script.
Read Full Review
38
USA Today Claudia Puig
Flyboys doesn't succeed as a wartime adventure story or as a period romance. Even the special effects, set in a historical context, are too ho-hum to save this over-long and tedious film.
Read Full Review
33
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Forget any hope of raffish adventure if you think of seeing Flyboys.
Read Full Review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kate Taylor
The creators of Flyboys know no image too clichéd, no narrative convention too exhausted and no psychological motivation too pat that it can't do service.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 4.9 (out of 10) based on 30 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tony B. gave it an8:
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.

Grant C. gave it a10:
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!

Gareth C gave it a1:
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.

guy ! gave it a10:
This is almost better than Independence Day! must...buy...soooooooon.

philip t. gave it an8:
Great film, with amazing dog fights! I will buy this on DVD!

Unzar J. gave it a3:
This movie was in desparate need of a lead actor that has charisma. Uninvolving, to say the least.

Linda gave it a3:
Heard how good it was, BORING, a little romance, want to see a great flick? check out The Guardian!!!! That was awesome!

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: iPhone 3G | Fantasy Football | Moneywatch | Antivirus Software | Recipes | E3 2009

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use