Les chevaliers du ciel

Year 2005/2006. What is this? Rubbing my eyes, checking the cover of DVD - Chevaliers du ciel, Les - yes, it is a french movie. Like so many Hollywood cookings, much aerial stunts, breath-taking sky- punctures through clouds and blue pilots heaven. Seen so many fighter-movies, but this is a bullseye. Not for a story - many weak characters, but the real bold ones, the planes themselves.

Mirage was a good choice. Delta-wings gives extra speed and maneuverable feelings with most important fact that those planes were real ones. Real pilots and real surroundings. Only scene over Paris was partly manipulated.

Goodbye Top Gun and so many ridiculous computer aided movies. I won't search for goofs, it's not relevant.

Female-must-frame-in-the-film act was filled with nice-faced Alice Taglioni and the others, but the they did not have the charm of Mme Géraldine Pailhas, who has those faces to hold in memory.

French icon Benoît Magimel got more to keep going on.

My vote is mostly for authentic aviation.

While in an international fair of exhibition of airplanes, a French Mirage 2000 of the last generation vanishes and pilots Antoine "Walk'n" Marchelli (Benoît Magimel) and Sebastian "Fahrenheit" Vallois (Clovis Cornillac) are assigned to locate the plane that is flying in a hiding position below a commercial airplane. The pilots order the Mirage to return to the base, but the Mirage attacks Fahrenheit instead, and Walk'n immediately shots the Mirage saving his partner. However, the evidences are forged by the leader of a force called "Special Missions" and Walk'n is falsely accused of not following the orders and discharged from the air force. Blacklisted in the commercial flight companies, Walk'n and Fahrenheit are pressed to join the Special Missions team, where they disclose betrayals in a net of espionage.

"Sky Fighters" is a surprisingly good action French movie, a sort of "Top Guns" of the Twentieth-First Century. The cinematography is spectacular, with impressive air flight sequences and the story is full of action, betrayal and espionage with many twists. In the end, this movie is a great entertainment. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Os Cavaleiros do Ar" ("The Air Knights")

A French aerial-action flick packed with fast jets, quick tempered pilots and the usual array of love-interests. Many have compared 'Les Chevaliers du ciel' to the 1986 US box office blockbuster, Top Gun. Film fans bang on about 'this lax French copy' - but it's not a copy, it's a completely different film altogether. Different plot and different characters. It just happens to feature the French Air Force, whereas Top Gun was based on the US Navy.

In my honest opinion, 'Les Chevs' (it's international title being Sky Fighters), is a very plausible film. If you ignore the weak female characters and their individual inter-woven story-lines, then the 97 minute film motors along quite happily. Then you discover that the director is one Gérard Pirès, the man responsible for delivering 'Riders' and 'Double Zero'. For anyone who saw either of these stable-mates may recall British actor Bruce Payne's fingernail scraping American accent in 'Riders' and then there was the farcical 'Double Zero' - a French spy comedy film. It was obvious that a large slice of the combined budgets went towards lunch.

'Les Chevaliers du ciel' has a fairly reasonable story: a new French fighter jet, the Mirage 2000 is hijacked on the tarmac at the Farnborough Airshow in the UK. Two French fighter jets are sent to intercept the stolen aircraft as it flies towards the French coast. Our two heros are flying the interceptors, Benoît Magimel as Capt Antoine "Walk'n" Marchelli and his sidekick, Capt Sébastien "Fahrenheit" Vallois played by Clovis Cornillac. They end up in a multitude of trouble but go on to save the day when a naughty little inter-governmental plot is revealed.

Such is the advancement in filming technology and special effects in the 19 years since Top Gun was made, this particular flick contains some very impressive aerial sequences. What many fail to realise is that the flying sequences in Top Gun were mainly filmed from the ground, whereas in 'Les Chevs', it was mostly airborne. With 21st Century kit like the Spacecam and the Vectorvision Jet Camera, what you see is what actually happened. By strapping this new technology to the underbelly of another fighter jet, the aerial sequences have you in the Martin Baker seat of ejection happiness. A pod containing 4 cameras captured the forward, rear and side-to-side action, making for a fascinating insight into the sheer joy of punching your way through a cloud bank.

The film, naturally, has to have a love interest - or 3 - as in this case. Géraldine Pailhas plays Maelle Coste, the French Prime Minister's defence adviser, Alice Taglioni plays fellow pilot Lt Estelle 'Pitbull' Kass and Rey Reyes as "Stardust", an American Air Force pilot on an exchange programme. I must say that Ms Reyes took a leaf out of 'Riders' by delivering a shockingly bad US accent and also managed to corner the market in pouting and posing. A character somewhat far fetched and unbelievable.

The inter-weaving sub plots keep you thinking and Fiona Curzon, a Paris-based English actress, makes an appearance as a certain Mrs Redgrave, a British arms dealer from Gibraltar. Sadly, she too seems to have been struck down with a case of the 'awful accents'.

Overall, 'Les Chevs' seems to have lifted Gérard Pirès out of his funk and is well worth a viewing. So brush up on your French, return the seatback to the upright position and prepare for the rush of the afterburners.

The film deals about a pair braves pilots, a young studs, on the ground and in the air, the captain Antoine Walk Marchelli(Benoit Maginel) and captain Fahrenheit(Clovis Cornillac), both commanding a Mirage fighter jets. They're assigned to locate an aircraft flying behind a commercial plane. The rare aircraft shots and the Marchelli's jet spontaneously shot, saving his pal. Meanwhile the French High Command orders recruiting pilots team with his American counterparts, a women pilots, on a flight missions. However captain Antoine is accused and dismissed from the Air Force, being forced to work in commercial aviation. But they return to Air Force on a secret mission. They fly to Middle East in order to vanquish American F-14 Fighter, but they are been taken prisoners.

This is a overwhelming comic-book with suspense, dogfighting with spectacular flight scenes and some commercial elements, like the catching music . Full of French jingoist ideals, dubious ethics and crack fighter pilots . The film moves like a supersonic bullet for most of its running time and the last generation Jets steal the show. Contrived beyond belief with spectacular dogfights that play like video games, but slickly calculated to please 2000s audiences. The movie follows the wake of ¨Top Gun, Iron Eagle I and sequels¨. Agreeable casting, though unknown, exception to Benoit Maginel with various success(Crimson Rivers 2, Flower of evil, Nest and Piano player) and Phippe Torreton(Captain Conan, Cursed monarchy, All starts today) as Bertrand. The motion picture is professionally directed by Gerad Pires, a director and writer with wide and long career since the 70s(Agression), until today(Riders, Taxi). Rating : Acceptable and passable, no boring , but is quite entertaining.

Admitedly this film is somewhat lacking in film techniques and complexity, but the reason for this is not that it is a bad film but rather a film with a different aim. With so many films coming out every year it is unavoidable that they be judged and compared, but this constant rating of films has created a certain stereotype of qualities which a film should have to be good. This kind of stereotyped rating, although often setting a good standard for comparison, works against films such as Sky Fighters. This is because in my opinion Sky Fighters has a different goal to most movies, rather than using the common methods to deliver a complex story line, Sky Fighters is a tribute to fighter pilots. It does an excellent job of portraying the complexity and importance of the role of a fighter pilot, as well as demonstrating the qualities a pilot must posses. Sky Fighters uses all real flying and aerobatics footage to achieve a very real demonstration, from the technical aspect, of what it means to be a fighter pilot. This film is very appropriate for anyone interested in fighters, aerobatics and the people behind them. I do not recommend it for audiences looking for a sophisticated or complex storyline.