Flyboys doesn't just use cliches - it wallows in them, feeling more like a film based on old war movies than actual history.

While director Bill nails the sheer spectacle of squads of SPADs dovetailing in flames into the wide blue yonder, the earthbound action (much as it was in another sputtering epic, Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor) is strictly laissez-faire.

Aafter a while -- there must be six major fights against unending numbers of German planes -- it feels like special effects run amok.

There's even a scene involving an old Zeppelin thrown in for good measure!