PS3 Blu-Ray Movie Night - Flyboys Pt .1

I just finished watching Flyboys (Blu-Ray) on the PS3 and I really enjoyed the movie.  I'll give a full review in two parts.  First the actual movie and tomorrow the hardware review.

Flyboys the Movie

This flick was roasted in the reviews,so I didn't have high hopes.  But being a flyer, an aviation history buff, looking for some material to watch on the PS3 and a desire to refresh my memory and see a "historical fiction" piece about the Lafayette Escadrille,  I added it to my Netflix queue.

If you aren't familiar, the Lafayette Escadrille was a group of volunteer Americans who flew for the French in WW I before the U.S. entered the war.  Aviation was in its infancy, and this diverse group of people fought and died as a volunteer French squadron.

The history gets a typical hollywood treatment with some excellent flying scenes, the usual personal trials and of course a love interest.  It runs about 2 hours and 20 minutes, and I thought he pacing was good.  The movie does a great job in the flying scenes depicting the very close range dogfights these pilots endured.  There is also an excellent scene that captures the reality of fighting against a zeppelin.

The love story isn't too painful and adds a little suspense to the film.  For some reason almost every movie has to have one.  I was able to endure it better than the love story in Pearl Harbor.

The Must See

If you do rent or purchase the movie, you absolutely must watch the special features, especially the short documentary about the real Lafayette Escadrille.  I learned about them in college (it was a required memory item my freshman year) and the features bring out some great facts that really add to the movie.  They talk about the real volunteers and how they match the characters in the movie and the short about the squadron's lion mascots is interesting.  Yes, they had lions.  It made me feel kind of wimpy since we only had two black cats as our squadron mascots in Korea, and one was fat and diabetic.

If you are an aviation fan and want to learn about a time that is almost forgotten in our lacking history education, rent this movie and watch the special features.

Tomorrow the technical review and some info about the PS3 and Blu-Ray