Flyboys

The movie soars with dazzling special effects, but it didn't fly high enough to avoid crashing its budget into the ground in a blazing inferno. This is yet another example that shows that no matter how much money you set aside for stunning special effects, you've still got to have a good story, good acting, and good direction or your movie's going to flop like a sumo wrestler off a high dive.

Let's start with the dialogue: cheesy, corny, predictable, fake, hollow, meaningless, wasted, cliche. The acting is mediocre, but not nearly strong enough to balance the sucking power of the weak story and flat characters. Everytime they flew into battle I never once thought "Boy, I hope he doesn't die". I felt so little emotion for each of the characters that they could have just as well have been cardboard cutouts flying planes (and the dimension of their acting about the same).

The movie was drawn out far too long. You had a fleeting romance that didn't connect with the heart of the film. You had more time spent on the worthless characters that you didn't care about then the characters that might have had a story to tell. Basically, you spend most of your time sitting patiently through the dramatic elements just waiting for the next dog fight. And I have to admit, the dog fights were very well done. Wait for DVD and just skip to the action.

Rating: 4 out of 10