The script takes a nosedive in 'Flyboys'

The airborne battles in the special effects-laden movie version get your attention as the biplanes and triplanes bob and weave through the sky at a whirlwind 100 mph and blast each other with steady machine gun bursts - rat-a-tat-tat! The problem is the majority of the budget obviously went into the computer-generated war scenes, while the script should have gotten an overhaul.

The acting doesn't take off, either. The cardboard characters - one hopes they were anchored to the ground during the shooting so not as to be blown away by the whirling propellers - are all your stereotypical ne'er-do-wells and wannabes drawn up from a checklist.

First there's Blaine Rawlings (James Franco), the Texas cowboy who loses his ranch and ends up volunteering for the all-American Lafayette Escadrille, a French flying squadron that takes on the Germans in 1916.

He's joined in rapid fire fashion by a fellow from Nebraska following in his family's war tradition, a black expatriate boxer fighting in Paris, a chubby kid who just flunked out of Harvard to the dismay of his wealthy father, and a mysterious dweeb with a secret played by David Ellison, whose tycoon father bankrolled a major part of the film.

The squadron commander is French Captain Thenault (Jean Reno), who knows the average life expectancy of a pilot is only three to six weeks. There's also a bellicose American squadron leader named Cassidy played by Baldwin Brothers look-a-like Martin Henderson, who seems to be channeling Robert Mitchum into James Dean. He spends the majority of the movie longing to settle a score with the dreaded German ace Black Falcon, the film's Red Baron of the sky.

Finally the upstart American pilots in their French biplanes engage the mechanically superior German triplanes, and one by one, in order of their importance to the script, they meet a rather unpleasant fate in defense of liberty, fraternity, and equality.

Meanwhile Blaine, his blonde highlights showing a tinge of battle grime toward the end of the picture, develops a love interest with a French girl named Lucienne (Jennifer Decker). They meet at the local bordello with his lame opening line: "So…uh…you're a prostitute? You don't look like one…"

Now normally that wouldn't leave much room for conversation, but this is war and the film manages to pad an extra hour of this romantic subplot between the two lovers who don't speak the same language. Too bad they couldn't just send text messages and spare us the details.

I've seen most of the World War I aviator movies and "Flyboys" crash lands in the flyweight division. The Blue Max remains the gold standard while I recommend viewers check out the 1976 anti-war Aces High. I recall leaving the theater in numbness after watching its shocking conclusion. Upon leaving the theater after "Flyboys," I felt nothing but hunger pangs for a French croissant filled with lots of baloney.

The bottom line: one and one-half out of four stars.

"Flyboys" is rated PG-13 for sexual content and intense war violence. Running time is 139 minutes.

Gary Brown is host of the Montgomery College Film Series. For information call (936) 273-7324 or e-mail garyb@nhmccd.edu.