Flyboys

Cubdriver wrote:

I loved the movie, and it had me sniffling a couple of times (when the
planes took off

tee hee.
Usually that's what I'm using the popcorn napkins for. I cry at TV
commercials. Didn't tear up at Flyboys, though.

With the improving state of computer animation, it was clear a lot of
the fight sequences were enhanced, to say the least, to make them more
thrilling...though they were pretty good anyhow. Apparently you can
shoot a million holes in the plane and never get the hero.

The little French kids were good, the love interest a little too
contrived (You plan to meet her in Paris? And you don't know her last
name? You couldn't write down an address or something?) but the puptent
flying base was interesting, what we got to see of it. A couple times
my Skepto-Meter kicked in like when he swiped the trainer to rescue his
girlfriend and the Germans about 50 yards away didn't notice him landing
(yeah, I know, he pulled the power on final but jeez) and they don't
show how the hero and the rescued Wisconsin kid got out of the firing
zone...apparently having abandoned one perfectly good plane.

My second favorite part: that one of the actors is genuinely named "Lex
Shrapnel."

My very favorite part -- 11 months ago being at a rural home & workshop
of a fellow in Kansas, one Robert Basley, who builds planes and made
the four biplanes for the movie. Yup, only four...it was all camera and
animation work that made them look like 20 or so. They'd already
finished filming it then, and mailed the planes back to him,
disassembled and stowed in a semi-trailer "container."
FWIW, none really had a radial engine in it, rotating or fixed. The
planes were streaked with paint to make them seem older and grimier, and
seeing all their wire-spoke wheels, fabric wings and fuselages with the
Indian logo scrubbed off but still visible, there in the dim storage
container, was a lot like seeing real relics. Sure made me eager to see
the finished movie.

It's worth a look. Then rent "Dark Blue World" and though it's a WW2
film, and not so early in the history of aviation and war, see the same
plot done better. Ragtag band of reject pilots, seat-of-the-pants
flying, love interest in the nearby town.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244479/

I think it's in Blockbuster's "foreign film" section.

Dudley Henriques wrote:
wouldn't need actors. They'd simply make an entire movie in blue screen
and superimpose the image of the actors in the scenes as needed.

that's pretty much how the movie 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'
was done :-) -- by the way, I love that movie: no pretense at being
'realistic' (deliberate 'look and feel' of retro futuristic graphic
novels), and of course it casts Angelina Jolie :-)

--Sylvain

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 00:57:24 GMT, John Ousterhout
wrote:

Jay Honeck replied:
Actually, Navy recruiting shot through the roof, after "Top Gun" hit
the silver screen.

I think that few of those who rushed out and enlisted after watching Top
Gun were of the caliber* required to become a Naval Aviator.

Let's hope "Flyboys" helps GA in the same way.

I saw Flyboys today. If watching it causes anyone to go to the local
FBO and sign up for flight training I'll buy a beer for everyone in this
discussion.

The top grossing (!) weekend movie was Jackass II. I can guess which
movie will be the more emulated.

I thought that Flyboys was hackneyed, trite, sophomoric and predictable.
Some of the flight scenes were great though. I thought the same about
Top Gun. Your mileage may vary :-)

Age of the viewer may be a consideration. If you grew up on the WWII
Hollywood platoon flicks of the '50s, you've already internalized the
plot; the question is how well the new movie handles it, how they cast
the Jimmy Cagney and the Tyrone Power parts. Flyboys does a good job
updating the genre, but I don't expect it to resonate with the Pulp
Fiction crowd.

Don

"Dudley Henriques" wrote:

Problem is that in the "old days", when Hollywood made an aviation movie,
they hired real life people as "technical advisors". These folks got
things as close to being realistic as possible;

They got pretty careless with the stock footage in the old days. Don't
remember which movie ("Flying Leathernecks" ?), but it showed John Wayne
taking off in a Wildcat and fighting in a Hellcat on the same mission.

Ah, The Duke; he could do anything!

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

It's worth a look. Then rent "Dark Blue World" and though it's a WW2
film, and not so early in the history of aviation and war, see the same
plot done better. Ragtag band of reject pilots, seat-of-the-pants
flying, love interest in the nearby town.

Agreed. We showed "Dark Blue World" at "Movie Night" last week, and it
was a big hit. Same basic plot as Flyboys (aren't they all?), except
not only does the hero lose the girl in the end -- he loses his *dog*.
(Man, that is LOW.)

But bewa "Dark Blue World" is subtitled. Strangely, even the
English-speaking parts are sub-titled. Many people find this to be too
distracting to fully appreciate the movie.

But the Spitfire scenes are worth it.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

snip

They got pretty careless with the stock footage in the old days. Don't
remember which movie ("Flying Leathernecks" ?), but it showed John Wayne
taking off in a Wildcat and fighting in a Hellcat on the same mission.

snip


Pay attention to just about any movie or TV show that shows a car. The
exterior shots are a blue Chevy, but the interior shots are a green Ford...




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Don't
remember which movie ("Flying Leathernecks" ?), but it showed John Wayne
taking off in a Wildcat and fighting in a Hellcat on the same mission.

"I Dream of Jeanie" was my favorite for stuff like that. In the space
of thirty seconds, they switched rockets six or seven times.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Some trivia about the movie from IMDB.com

a.. Filmmakers attempted to use lightweight reproductions of WWI aircraft,
but grounded them after an accident.


a.. As no studios would back the film, a group of filmmakers and investors
including producer Dean Devlin and ace pilot David Ellison, son of Oracle
Corp. founder Larry Ellison, spent more than $60 million of their own money
to make and market this film.

Jose wrote:
Don't remember which movie ("Flying Leathernecks" ?), but it showed
John Wayne taking off in a Wildcat and fighting in a Hellcat on the
same mission.

"I Dream of Jeanie" was my favorite for stuff like that. In the space
of thirty seconds, they switched rockets six or seven times.

Jose
Nothing wrong with getting in as many different rockets as possible.
Rockets are cool!

I agree with this review:

Had Top Gun been directed by a curator at the Smithsonian Museum,
Flyboys would have been the outcome. -- Tyler Hanley, Palo Alto Weekly

AJH