Sep 29, 2006 By Lou Gaul Calkins Media Film Critic 2 min read

If released 30 or 40 years ago, “Flyboys,” an old-school military movie about daredevil American pilots flying bombers for the French at the start of World War I, would have been described as a matinee movie. The fact-based picture is designed for boys and teens anxious to be swept off their feet by some high-in-the-sky dogfights as the story of the first military top guns -ones who volunteer for the incredibly risky job of challenging German pilots in better-equipped aircraft – unfolds. Other viewers will wonder why this PG-13 picture simply didn’t land in DVD stores and then on cable outlets.

In “Flyboys,” which begins in 1916, Blaine Rawlings (James Franco of “Spider-Man”), a Texan with no living relatives, heads to Europe to join the war effort after losing his ranch to the bank. He’s soon joined by five other Americans, each of whom is there for a personal reason ranging from impressing a disapproving father to believing he’s doing God’s work.

Actor-turned-director Tony Bill (“My Bodyguard”) takes a by-the-numbers approach to the story and inserts numerous military-movie clich?s. Those include having Franco’s character meet and fall for a beautiful French girl, providing an understanding commander (Jean Reno of “Leon, The Professional”) and having an evil German pilot who delights in “kills” against the French forces.

Viewers will have no trouble predicting the dramatic path of “Flyboys,” and fans of such fare should be mostly satisfied with the digitally created air battles. Those sequences put viewers in the pilot’s seat of some heated exchanges in which a flyer’s life can end in a second due to the powerful machine-gun bullets that rip apart the aircrafts like a butcher knife through a sheet of paper.

Postscript: “Flyboys” tells the story of the Lafayette Escadrille, a French Air Service squadron composed largely of American fighter pilots during World War I. According to Wikipedia.com, 265 Americans volunteered to serve as pilots.

FILM REVIEW

“Flyboys”

Grade: B-

Starring: James Franco and Jean Reno; written by Phil Sears and Blake T. Evans; directed by Tony Bill.

Running Time: 140 minutes.

Parental Guide: PG-13 rating (intense military battles, some sexual elements).