MovieChat Forums > The Flyboys (2008) Discussion > The stupid points around.

The stupid points around.

posted 16 years ago by humppatarzan
8 replies | jump to latest

1) Number one, just to make sure it was here... The whole *beep* plot was completely unbelievable.

It blew me away with its stupidity. It wasn't a gem. There were so many illogical things in this movie, that my brains were hurting from trying to figure out, why did those characters do those things. This was a decent movie, but not a gem. You have to draw the line somewhere. Apparently you just don't know about drawing a line yet.

2) Those silly, stupid walkie-talkies. Another boy comes up with two walkie-talkies, telling you: "Hey, we just got our new walkie-talkies!" You take a look at him, asking: "What do we need them for?" and he replies: "I don't know, really, but the guy, who has written the screenplay told us, that we'll need these to carry on!" and you will feel so cool and never think more about it. Naturally, the viewers won't pay any attention to them, either.

3) Character development. There was, very close to, none. I was expecting some development, what came to the "kids" (if you can call 18-19 year old actors as kids, but I have to admit, that I didn't realize they were that old) and Samantha and Ed NEVER got anywhere after their initial flirting. AND the only real moment of development was with those weird mafia brothers and you knew the little brother was about to die later in the movie. The whole movie was cut so short (I'm sure there has to be at least 15 minutes of "left-overs", which were never used for the film. Why? Young people don't really mind long movies, do they? Otherwise, no-one would've come to see any of the LOTR movies, ever. Besides, Jason McIntyre's whole family was nothing more than a collection of stereotypes. How would you want to explain those characters to anyone sane?

(OK, there was the calculated character development for Jason McIntyre's grandpa, but that was so, so, so, so, so, so, so well planted it was just as transparent as those walkie-talkies were. I just wonder, why there wasn't any product placement here? It would've fitted the theme of this film.

4) The bomb in the plane. Reiley McClendon's character is a very clever kid. He knows where to hit his opponents in a fight, but unfortunately he is still feeling quite insecure about how to deal with a bomb. Perhaps bringing one to the cockpit of the plane, he is currently enjoying as a passenger, would bring the mood up. I mean, throwing it out the plane would seem awfully rude, unless it was suggested by his new best pal.

5) Reassurance. Jesse James's character knows how the basic functions of the plane work out. Still, it takes him several minutes to see what was ahead of the plane (as if the mountains were really that hard to miss) and he got both of them all safe and feeling "oh, yes, nice, another mountain, and we didn't collide with it!"

6) Those mafia "FBI agents" never proof their identities. When I was around the characters' age, I was still a fat Finn, and already seen enough movies and tv series to figure out, that all FBI agents were used to prove their identity with a lovely Christmas card, found in their pockets. The boys should've known the same, which makes the viewer thinking about the possibility, that maybe the boys wanted to get in touch with the mafia, as they figured out they would get their free ice-cream.

6.66) When someone WAS shooting at you INTENSIVELY, and then stopped, even though there was time for the person to reload the gun, it probably means he or she doesn't have any more ammunition to go with. That means making a threat against someone you barely know makes no sense, especially when you are still few pages away from your minor character development.

7) Even the smallest kid you know can tell you the basic thing one needs to do with a plane: Pull back. The really bad, awful guy didn't do that. Instead he just chose to look at his own death. Was he really that stupid?

8) There is no eight.

I enjoyed most of the movie. I think there were great moments of sudden or not-so-sudden (calculated) feelings involved. This one wasn't a great one, but it was a decent one. I still CANNOT understand people saying this was gem, when they have apparently never seen a real one.

[–] minigoofy 16 years ago

I disagree with all your points but would like to know what movies would you call gems? ...and FYI the movie was filmed 6 years ago, so the actors were 12 then.

[–] joshcryer 16 years ago

You actually felt it was worth writing your retarded 'critique' in its own post? How about I just paste my reply then!

You win for the most assinine post to IMdb. The fact that you clearly spent so much time writing that drivel shows you have no life, and live to complain for the crap of it.

1) The plot was cohesive, that's all that matters.

2) You must not have ever been a kid. Everyone where I was growing up wanted one. We were poor so I never got one until I was 18 (ironically the age of the actors). We played with those things until they broke. You are completely stupid to think kids don't find walky talkies the most awesome thing ever. (Granted in this age of cell phones a walky talky may not be seen as too cool.)

3) Character development? Seriously? Scardy-cat bullied kid doesn't overcome his fear of just about everything? Poor kid moves around a lot finds a best friend for life? OK. I mean for a kids movie the development is way up there to any reasonable person.

4) It's called comedy relief. Get the *beep* over it.

5) Uh, in the air objects are not as obvious, your speed is very fast, large objects can be small at first. Perception is skewed. Of all your complaints this is the most assinine (especially since they show the percpective of the mountain far away and then close up, showing just how easy it is to be confused).

6) So? The kids had a choice between mafia looking guys who seemed nice and *beep* hick bullies who essentially *tried to kill them* the day before. The option was clear, and you could sense the hesitation. Did you not *watch* the movie? Which would you have chosen? Crazy murderer guy or fat guys with sunglasses?

7) OK this was the only 'hole' in the movie that I saw. I felt the kid could've easily gotten away at that point. However, irrelevant, the plot had to continue, and anyone can justify it in any way they wanted to. I'll leave it to your rather lacking imagination to do so. (Hint, they didn't know if he had a clip or reloaded or what.)

8) LOL, again your ignorance of flight shows. Hello idiot? The plane was clearly out of gas and in a terminal stall. ie, it wasn't flying fast enough to maintain altitude. They even showed that it was out of gas (talk about attention to detail). The guy could not do *beep* Man, they even showed the controls "going limp" implying that there was hardly any resistance in the controls, meaning not enough speed to matter. A big (two engine) plane like that has a very low stall speed. Talk about stupidity.

9) You are an idiot to make these stupid ass observations. The most glaring thing in my mind was how the kids were able to skip school so much. How the idiot who tried chasing them down and killing them at the beginning of the movie didn't get busted for wreckless endangerment. How it would have been impossible to save the falling kid given the time allotted (they timed it OK, but the air scene was wrong to any parachutist; it was still quite awesome to watch).

This movie had everything going for it, primarily a coherent, cohesive, rapid paced plot that continued and continued. It had complete hilarity, complete absurdity, but there were no glaring plot holes as you put them. What you have written here was a complete waste of time and obviously out of touch, intended to bash a very well made movie.

What a critique!

[–] TheWanderingFish 16 years ago

"You win for the most assinine post to IMdb. "

This is better read as:

"I don't visit the IMDb very often, and this is the first time I've ever encountered someone who disagrees with me and it pisses me off! You're a moron! Roar!"

"Or perhaps it's not overrated"

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] sdickenson888 16 years ago

Come on, dude – this was a great, original and very entertaining film. Are you really that cynical? This movie is a gem. Hollywood doesn’t make ‘em like this any more.

1) The whole plot was unbelievable? No more unbelievable than some of my favorite movies of all time – Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Superman The Movie. You must watch a lot of Merchant/Ivory films.

2) The “silly, stupid walkie talkies” Do you ever spend time around kids? A kid makes a new friend – they’re going to be hanging out together and playing all day somewhere cool like an airport – Don’t you think if one of them has a set of walkie talkie’s, he might just think that it would be cool to give one to his buddy and that they just might have fun playing with them? Come, man – watching these two kids interacting, playing with walkie talkies and just being kids reminded me of my childhood and how fun the most simple things were before life got so damn complicated. It didn’t feel contrived at all.

3) “Character development. There was close to none.” Are you kidding me? Did we see the same movie? When this film ended and I walked out of the theater, I felt like I was leaving family behind. The character development in this film is what made it stand out from all the other crap that Hollywood is churning out for kids. Even the supporting characters were well defined.

4) The bomb on the plane – You are just looking for something to rip on, aren’t you? This scene was great – intense and funny. The two kids panic, they are on a plane by themselves – Together, they are trying to figure out what to do. They decide one flies the plane and the other gets the bomb. The dark haired kid goes and grabs the bomb and brings it with him so they can decide what to do next – which results in a very funny spontaneous exchanges in the movie. When they decide to throw it out, it results in one of the biggest laughs I’ve had in a movie in quite a while. Again, kids being kids.

5) The mountain scene – When you are flying an airplane and you are not at the kind of altitude that requires oxygen – there are things like mountain ranges that come up quickly. It’s like the ocean – you turn your back on it and you can find your self in trouble before you know it. They boys were not in control of or flying the airplane at this point – they were busy trying to figure out how to call for help on the radio and were also a little distracted by the bomb. From a distance the mountains probably seemed very far away or that you would probably clear them. When the dark haired kid was finished “disposing” of the bomb – he came back to the cockpit and noticed the mountains getting closer – the blond haired kid is trying to work the radio – it was all totally plausible. They see the mountains getting closer and then deal with it like all of the other problems: One at a time.

6) Those Mafia “Agents” – great scene. Two men in dark suits approach the two boys and identify themselves as FBI. Remember that these two kids have been in big trouble in the last 24 hours – the boys have been around cops, firemen and other authority figures a lot lately, it’s not as “out of the ordinary” as usual. They also have just come out of school and spot the two older bullies that want to kill them – they’re a little distracted. Getting in the car with a couple of FBI agents is a welcomed relief. And last, but not least, they’re kids! They’re inexperienced. It’s totally plausible and could happen.

6.66) I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about here – but if you’re a kid and there’s a scary adult with a gun – you’re gonna do whatever the hell he says. You’re not going to say “gee… I’m willing to bet my life that there’s no bullets left.” Unless, of course, you’re Dirty Harry.

7) At the end when Lenny makes his way to the cockpit of the airplane, it’s already in a steep dive. When an airplane like a Twin Beechcraft D-18 is in a dive that steep and has gained that much momentum, the strongest guy on the planet couldn’t pull out of it – he tries by pulling on the wheel – then realizes it’s futile and let’s go. You asked: “Was he really that stupid?” No – you are that stupid for all your petty knit-picky comments about a film that my family and I thoroughly enjoyed. Wait and see – this film will become a classic.

[–] schnips 16 years ago

You're right about this movie was stupid, but if you can't figure out they were kids when this movie was recorded 6 years ago, you're are even more stupid.

[–] captainamerica-5 16 years ago

humppatarzan: You've really got issues if you had the audacity to make your large rant, and post it twice, just to show how much displeasure you've had with this movie...

...maybe if you made valid points, it would be undertandable... but as some of the rhetorics have pointed out, your mentions are just complete mute nonsense.

[–] georgiemyler 15 years ago

Yes, there were many illogical points. But many extremely popular films, both for adults and especially for children/young adults are illogical. Take all those horror films where the victims do really dumb things like going back into the killer's house/haunted house, and the killer or monster comes back to life time after time. Or the action films where one man takes down whole groups of heavily armed bad guys. Or the Indiana Jones films. Or those films where people shoot holding their guns sideways, LOL. I mean, have you seen Cramk? Damn good action film, but totally unrealistic and illogical. Kids films are very often illogical, which makes them amusing for adults, and fun for kids. It's just harmless fun, and this film was way, way above many films with similar plots. I thought the character development was really good for a kids film (please note, most kids probably aren't looking for that in their films) and I liked that the 'mob' guys weren't all bad, Silvio, Angelo and the two enforcers/goons came off as 'good' guys, a nice change, and there was real emotion during Silvio's death scene was excellent. There were some nice (if cliched) stuff about friendship and different kinds of bravery. As for the no romance thing, well, it's a kids film, and a 12, and most kids don't want lots of 'yucky' kissing/romance stuff between adults in their films. Hell, I'm 24 and I don't like that much either. Plus the film was about the two boys, not about Samantha and Ed.When I borrowed the film from my library, I knew it was going to be utterly ridiculous/illogical in parts, and that was fine with me, because that's usually what you get with kids films, and many adult films as well. For what it was - a kids film that was meant for most adults to enjoy too - it was a gem, far above the animated/Disney stuff that's around so much these days. This film is intended for people of any age who just want to watch a nice, fun, family film. If you want a film that's entirely logical, don't watch 'kids' films, and I think you might want to avoid the majority of horror/action/thriller types too, as some I have seen are even more illogical and have less developed characters than this film!