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    • BLU-RAY REVIEW

    Flyboys

    Featured In Issue 118, March 2007

    Picture3.5
    SoundNR
    WSR Score3
    Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
    (Studio/Distributor):
    MGM Home Entertainment
    (Catalog Number):
    M106529
    (MPAA Rating):
    PG13
    (Rating Reason):
    (Retail Price):
    $39.98
    (Disc Type):
    Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-50)
    (Widescreen Edition):
    Yes
    (Full Screen Edition):
    No
    (Running Time In Minutes):
    139
    (Color Type):
    Color
    (Chaptered/Scene Access):
    Yes
    (Closed Captioned):
    Yes
    (Regional Coding):
    Not Indicated
    (Theatrical Year):
    2006
    (Theatrical Release):
    Yes
    (Direct-To-Video Release):
    No
    (Disc Release Date):
    01/30/07
    (THX® Digitally Mastered):
    No
    (Director):
    Tony Bill
    (Screenplay/Written By):
    (Story):
    (Music):
    (Director Of Photography):
    (Production Designer):
    (Visual Effects):
    (Costume Designer):
    (Editor):
    (Supervising Sound Editors):
    (Re-Recording Mixers):
    (Executive Producers):
    (Co-Producers):
    (Producers):
    (Academy Awards):
    (Principal Photography):
    (Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
    (Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
    (Disc Soundtrack):
    DTS HD Lossless 5.1
    (Theatrical Sound):
    (Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
    (DTS Bit Rate):
    (Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
    (Additional Languages):
    (French Language):
    (Spanish Language):
    (Chinese Language):
    (Subtitles):
    (Cantonese Language):
    (Mandarin Language):
    (Japanese Language):
    (Italian Language):
    (German Language):
    (Portuguese Language):

    While World War I rages in far-away Europe, a group of American soldiers volunteer to assist the French in taking to the skies against the fearless Germans. Under the command of Captain Thenault (Jean Reno), these wet-behind-the-ears Flyboys, led by cowboy Blaine Rawlings (Franco), learn the price of freedom, and become the true-life Lafayette Escadrille. Inspired by a true story. (Jack Kelley)

    Most of the special features are the same as on the DVD: audio commentary with Director Tony Bill and Producer Dean Devlin, six featurettes: the 27-minute "Real Heroes: The Lafayette Escadrille," an interesting eight-minute "The Diary Of A Miniature Stunt Pilot," eight minutes with "Whisky and Soda: The Lion Marscots," "Taking Flight: The Making Of Aerial Battle Sequences" in ten minutes, nine minutes with "The Real Planes Of Flyboys," and an almost five-minute ride with the Air Force Thunderbirds and The Navy Blue Angels; six deleted scenes; the theatrical trailer; and additional trailers. There is no DVD ROM material, but there is an optional Aerial Guide Track.

    The Blu-ray Disc version looks much better than the DVD, with more accurate fleshtones and generally more natural and vibrant hues, but the same shroud of white harms black levels and causes whites to look bloomy. Details are captured well for the most part, but there are scenes that are too soft. (Danny Richelieu)

    The DVD's Dolby® Digital- and DTS® Digital Surround™-encoded soundtrack features a broad front stage with good surround envelopment in the key scenes. Music is mixed well around the room, especially across the front stage. Atmospheric effects and the bass from the airplanes' engines are delivered well. The LFE channel is not used often enough, however, and there are times when the lowest frequencies are underutilized, rarely dropping below 35 Hz in even the most intense scenes. The DTS track improves fidelity over the Dolby encoding. The Blu-ray Disc's lossless DTS-HD™ Master Audio 5.1-channel encoding sounds slightly better than the DTS encoding found on the DVD, only because our reference player—the Samsung BD-P1000—cannot decode the lossless portion of the encoding, only the core DTS track. (Danny Richelieu)

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