If I hadn't been told in advance how hokey Flyboys is, then it may not have took off for me, but it did, even if the plane then hovered 20 feet above ground, smoke bellowing from the engine. This heavy-handed portrait of WWI fliers packs in every war movie cliche in the book to the point where things start to get unpredictable because I'm not sure which cliche will come up next. The rich fat guy learns to love the stoic black guy, the lead gets laid by a pretty frog, the evil German pilot gets his just desserts, and many more than I am willing to list.
But the critically maligned CGI battles are actually pretty nifty, although I was prepared to give the film a 0 if there was one more mid-air staring contest. It's dopey, sure, but nice scenes such as the training sequence where the pilots learn to fly by walking on boards and shooting at stationary targets give the film some lift. Moronic subplots add roughly 40 minutes to the running time, rendering this useless as a casual way to kill time.
2 out of 5
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