A fair "Flyboys"

It certainly isn't the best movie made this year. Heck, it isn't even the best movie made about planes this year (try upstaging "Snakes on a Plane"). But MGM's latest World War I epic-wannabe "Flyboys" isn't bidding for any Oscars; it just wants to have a good ole patriotic time. And, for the most part, it succeeds in doing just that.

Based on a true story, the movie documents the escapades of a ragtag band of Americans who volunteer their services to the French army during WWI. They join a squadron called the Lafayette Escadrille, a focused offensive against the German air force. Beginning as separate but slowly melding together, the young pilots eventually ooze almost unbearable quantities of team spirit, becoming the heroic flyboys, or "knights of the sky."

This film comes off in many ways like a conventional sports movie - except the protagonists swerve around in planes instead of toting hockey sticks. There are adrenaline-charged victories and tense moments of almost-failure thrown into the mix, along with a super-bad bad-guy, an ace German pilot (Gunnar Winbergh) nicknamed "The Black Falcon." There is the rascally, fresh faced kid (James Franco) from whom the audience immediately expects great things; a tough black boxer and the snobby, racist Ivy League dropout who has beef with him; the stern but fair commander (a wonderful Jean Reno); and the dark, mysterious veteran pilot with a pet lion named Whiskey and an Intriguing Past (with capital letters), played by Martin Henderson. Fulfilling the basic expectations of any generic war movie, the acting is overall comfortable and appropriate, although there is nothing remarkable about it.

James Franco, the biggest commercial name in the project, is also perfectly adequate as the protagonist, a spirited Texan named Blaine Rawlings. Franco does a fine job with the limited character of Blaine, whose sole function is to grin roguishly at the camera and to cause teenage girls sitting in the audience to spontaneously combust. Occasionally, however, he does add something special to his role. One of the highlights of his performance and of the film is the charming, lost-in-translation romance Blaine shares with a lovely French peasant girl (Jennifer Decker), something which involves a great deal of roughish grinning.

On the special effects front, the film features plenty of impressive CGI planes and action sequences, including a spectacular zeppelin explosion. The music is predictably rousing and becomes especially inspiring when James Franco has ceased his roughish grinning in favor of a particularly intense facial expression. Ultimately, however, the music and effects do nothing more than serve their function, lending a solid sense of period atmosphere to the movie.

There is nothing groundbreaking about this film, but then again, it doesn't expect itself to be. It shamelessly and rather shallowly explores literary themes of which most English teachers are exceptionally fond: honor, love, loyalty and freedom. But sometimes, in an age of incomprehensible artistic films and heartless action flicks, such overripe romanticism is just the thing. So, if you're prepared to give it a chance, kick back and allow yourself to be guided into the wild blue yonder with "Flyboys." If not, "Snakes on a Plane" is probably playing next door.

"Flyboys" (129 minutes long, in wide release) is rated PG-13 for combat violence and sexuality.