Cliches take wing in 'Flyboys'

Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 22, 2006 at midnight

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For once, the suits may have gotten it right. Monday I read a Reuters article that reported that most of the major studios had passed on Flyboys. They evidently didn't think audience interest in a World War I drama would create lines at the box office. That meant the movie's producers, who obviously disagreed, had to cough up their own dough to get Flyboys off the ground.

After seeing Flyboys - a look at Americans who volunteered to fly with the French before the U.S. entered the war - I reluctantly must agree with the studios: This cornball effort pales in comparison with the best World War I dramas. Flyboys doesn't feel particularly realistic, nor is it especially entertaining.Inspired by a variety of true stories, Flyboys deals with the Lafayette Escadrille, a unit that was part of the French Air Force. Interesting subject, but the resultant movie mostly flies through clouds of dullness.

It should have been otherwise. Fighting in the air during World War I was a desperately risky business. The average life span of pilots ranged from three to six weeks. But the movie, which feels more than a little callow, has little going for it, even when its digitally enhanced dogfights are in full swing.

I counted two exciting sequences and a whole lot of numbing downtime when the movie introduces us to the pilots, young men who are learning lessons about the hardships of war.

Little time is wasted on character development, a shame because the movie drags on for more than two hours.

Instead, Flyboys focuses on surface details. One of the pilots, for example, has a tame pet lion. And the pilots were issued pistols so that they had the option of shooting themselves instead of being consumed in the fiery carcasses of falling planes.

To the extent that the movie has a story, James Franco, who plays the main flyboy, carries it. His Blaine Rawlings, a dispossessed rancher, travels to France to join the fighting. Franco is the only name player in this low-grade, overscored immersion in noble-warrior syndrome.

Audiences may also recognize French actor Jean Reno, who portrays the stern but fair officer who trains the Americans, a group that includes a disaffected black man (Abdul Salis) whose father had been a slave, and a Harvard washout (Tyler Labine) who hasn't shed his snobbery.

Perhaps to add to the movie's romanticism, Franco's character finds himself falling for Lucienne (Jennifer Decker), a French girl he meets at a brothel. But wait - it's OK. Lucienne doesn't work in the brothel. She's just visiting to swap some goods.

In the climactic battle, the flyboys square off with a German pilot known as the Black Falcon. They're trying to blow up a zeppelin that's en route to Paris with a payload of bombs.

Cliched and corny, Flyboys is one of those wannabe epics that are inspired by true events but hardly have a moment that feels truthful. Too bad. The suits were right. I guess it had to happen once.

Blink and you'll miss it

• The film: Feast

• The stars: Navi Rawat, Krista Allen, Balthazar Getty

• Why we should care: Fans who watched the third season of Bravo's underappreciated Project Greenlight saw first-time (and decidedly eccentric) filmmaker John Gulager make this horror feature.

• The premise: A motley crew of strangers find themselves trapped in an isolated tavern and must band together in a battle for survival against a family of flesh-hungry creatures.

• Why you need to see it this weekend: The film is only being shown in midnight screenings in 200 theaters in 100 markets tonight and Saturday. In Denver, it shows at the Esquire.

• Why you don't need to see it this weekend: The film will be released on DVD Oct. 17.

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