Les chevaliers du ciel (2005)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Gérard Pirès

Writers:

Gilles Malençon (adaptation)
Gilles Malençon (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 November 2005 (Belgium)

Genre:

Adventure | Action

Tagline:

'Top Gun' for a new generation.

Plot:

While in an international fair of exhibition of airplanes, a French Mirage 2000 of the last generation...

Plot Keywords:

Pilot | Betrayal | Interracial Romance | Paris | Fighter Pilot

Cast

Benoît Magimel	...	Capitaine Antoine "Walk'n" Marchelli
Clovis Cornillac	...	Capitaine Sébastien "Fahrenheit" Vallois
Géraldine Pailhas	...	Maelle Coste
Alice Taglioni	...	Capitaine Estelle 'Pitbull' Kass
Philippe Torreton	...	Bertrand
Rey Reyes	...	Capitaine Leslie 'Stardust' Hedget
Peter Hudson	...	Général Buchanan
Jean-Baptiste Puech	...	Ipod
Christophe Reymond	...	Stan
Fiona Curzon	...	Mrs Redgrave
Jean-Michel Tinivelli	...	Colonel Farje
Frédéric van den Driessche	...	Général Hardouin
Eric Poulain	...	Capitaine Klébér
Pierre Poirot	...	De Séze
Jean-Yves Chilot	...	Houdon

Also Known As:

Sky Fighters (International: English title)

Runtime:

France:102 min | Argentina:102 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English | Arabic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Netherlands:6 | Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | France:U | Portugal:M/12 | Canada:13+ | Hong Kong:I | Finland:K-7 | Canada:PG | Argentina:13 | South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

Djibouti

Company:

Mandarin Films

Trivia:

Early in the film, one pilot does a barrel roll over the other jet, in what is presumably a homage to the same stunt performed by Chuck Yeager in the John Wayne vehicle Jet Pilot (1957).

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Fahrenheit and Ipod walk on the tarmac toward their planes, Fahrenheit asks : "What is our mission?". This is highly improbable, pilots know their mission before setting foot on the tarmac.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Les chevaliers du ciel - Making-of promo (2005) (V)

Good fun movie

I remember the Aeronauts from the early 70s. Badly dubbed into English, with French pilots shooting up North Africa at the drop of a croissant.

This is a slick remake. Some bits of the plot was a bit hard to follow because of slightly jerky edits. But ignore that and it is s real fun film.

Other people have commented on the flight and combat scenes. These are amazing, and if CGI was used anywhere I didn't spot it. (May be a low level supersonic run?) But I am not a fan of flying films, and this one almost converted me.

Music is by Chris Corner (see IMDb) and is not overwhelming. This is Top Gun plus and I would recommend it. Especially as, like a lot of French films, the DVD can be picked up cheap at the end of the movie run.