Flyboys (2006)Movie Reviews

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 47 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 Iffy for 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 70
    L.A. Weekly | Scott Foundas

    A highly enjoyable programmer about those brave young men and their rickety flying machines. Read full review

  • 63
    Boston Globe | Ty Burr

    The movie's straightforward and ingratiating, and as pretty-boy history lessons go, it's a lot less obnoxious than "Pearl Harbor." Read full review

  • 60
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    Lovingly 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. Read full review

  • 60
    The Hollywood Reporter | Sheri Linden

    A decidedly old-fashioned war film that reaches for epic sweep but is often bogged down in cliched drama and two-dimensional characters. Read full review

  • 50
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    While the music slops and churns and the ground-level bathos rises, the aerial stuff is occasionally stirring. Read full review

  • 50
    Philadelphia Inquirer | Steven Rea

    Shot like a Disney period piece (prettily, with spiffy props, shiny vintage vehicles, and costumes just back from the cleaners), Flyboys introduces its squadron the old-fashioned way: with character-establishing setups. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | Nathan Lee

    Despite 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. Read full review

  • 42
    Entertainment Weekly |

    This 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. Read full review

  • 40
    Austin Chronicle | Marc Savlov

    While director Bill nails the sheer spectacle of squads of SPADs dovetailing in flames into the wide blue yonder, the earthbound action (much as it was in another sputtering epic, Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor") is strictly laissez faire. Read full review

  • 38
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Flyboys 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. Read full review

View more reviews for Flyboys (2006) on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 13+ WWI pilots make like heroes in bland adventure.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this action drama is set during World War I, so the combat on the ground is awkward and somewhat brutal (though only briefly seen), while the newfangled "flying machine" combat is romanticized. Battles tend to include slow motion sequences and grand music, characters are shot in their cockpits and slump over, bleeding, and a couple of planes crash. One character is shot down by airplanes after he has crash-landed. Another suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, drinking too much and behaving erratically, worrying his fellow flyers. A central character is shot (not fatally) while escaping the Germans. A brief scene following a pilot's crash shows him in a French bordello, where the prostitutes appear in their underwear and he undresses to his own underwear in order to have his injury dressed (he's embarrassed by this). Characters drink liquor, smoke cigarettes and cigars, and use occasional mild profanity.
  • Families can talk about the history of World War I, which introduced planes as weapons and vehicles of warfare. How do the American flyers help the French cause before the United States enters the war? Why did the United States finally decide to get involved in the war? How has warfare changed since WWI? What is the movie's ultimate message about war?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Brave young men learn to work as a team (in the air and on the ground).
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Action includes a brief boxing scene, several dog-fighting scenes (shooting at and from planes, mildly bloody injuries, a couple of deaths, crashes); some tense scenes involve shooting at planes from the ground (and narrow escapes), as well as shooting in trench warfare; a main character is shot in the shoulder (minor blood visible).
  • sex false3 Sex: When Blaine crashes, he's tended to in a brothel, where he sees women in lacy underwear; Blaine appears undressed as Lucienne dresses his leg wound; later, they kiss.
  • language false3 Language: Infrequent mild language ("hell," "damn," "goddamn"); white flyers make racist remarks to the black pilot when he enters a bar.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Cigarette smoking and some drinking (at bars and in tribute to military missions).
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

2.0

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Flyboys (2006) Movie Ratings + Reviews

Fans say

So-so 764 fan reviews

Critics say

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