Flyboys

Went to see Flyboys last night with a couple of buddies. We all ragged on it afterwards for being over-the-top and predicatable, but we also agreed that we had a blast watching it. It's not at all a modern war movie in that it doesn't punch you in the face with the "war is hell" message. (Not that I don't enjoy those films when they're well done. I'm especially looking forward to Flags of Our Fathers.)

Even though it's about World War I, Flyboys is a throw-back to WWII-era war movies where war is more adventurous than devastating. Yeah, people die in it, but they're more often overcoming personal struggles and falling in love with beautiful French gals. And that's pretty cool too.

The dogfights are fantastic, the French gals are beautiful, and the special effects are perfect. I honestly couldn't tell when they'd shifted from real plane to model to CGI and that's the way special effects should be. I never thought about them; I just enjoyed the film.

I don't know how well the movie's doing, but I get the feeling that a lot of people don't know about it. It certainly wasn't marketed very heavily. All that means though is that when it comes out on DVD, it'll be one of those movies that I drag out whenever I'm with a group of people who want to watch something good that they haven't seen before.