47
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasA highly enjoyable programmer about those brave young men and their rickety flying machines.
- 67Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam ArnoldSeattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam ArnoldAs imaginatively as some of them are staged, the action scenes are never authentically gripping. This seems to be the hidden handicap of our new digital filmmaking era in which all big action sequences are generated in the computer and look vaguely like cartoons.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenA decidedly old-fashioned war film that reaches for epic sweep but is often bogged down in cliched drama and two-dimensional characters.
- 60VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyLovingly and knowledgeably made by director Tony Bill, who got his pilot's license as a teenager, pic nonetheless has a lightweight, airbrushed feel; despite the brutal dogfights and inevitable deaths, there's little gravity or resonance.
- 50Village VoiceVillage VoiceHere is the War to End All Wars seen from on high--as it was way back when, in "Wings" or the Howard Hughes "Hell's Angels"--a world apart from the grim, futile slaughterhouses of Verdun and the Marne. Among these combatants, you won't find much "All Quiet on the Western Front"–style despair, and the paths of glory are unsullied by doubt or disillusionment.
- 50Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsChicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJust about everything in the video-gamey World War I picture Flyboys rings false, although the planes certainly are terrific.
- 50Washington PostStephen HunterWashington PostStephen HunterWhile the music slops and churns and the ground-level bathos rises, the aerial stuff is occasionally stirring.
- 50The New York TimesNathan LeeThe New York TimesNathan LeeDespite its empty head and arduous length, Flyboys is ever so nice, in the manner of a Norman Rockwell illustration. The director, Tony Bill, may not be a philosopher but he is a gentleman, moving things along with a tidy, well-mannered hand. In another context, such politesse might feel tonic. Given the state of things, it’s nearly toxic.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment WeeklyThis is a lost opportunity on an epic scale. The actors are so styled and the dogfights so drippy with CG that, as a period piece, the movie almost looks like it's set in the future.
- 38USA TodayClaudia PuigUSA TodayClaudia PuigFlyboys doesn't succeed as a wartime adventure story or as a period romance. Even the special effects, set in a historical context, are too ho-hum to save this over-long and tedious film.