Biggles: Adventures in Time

"Biggles" aspired to be an adventure movie in the sense of the old serials and dime novels; it comes close to succeeding on some levels, but blows it where it matters. The story itself centers on a bland frozen food marketer who keeps finding himself transported back in time to help a pilot.

Some things worked out very well; the close up shots of biplanes dogfighting and streaking down to just graze the ground, the accuracy of the equipment and weapons for the time period. (For those who don't believe machine guns existed back then, the one they use is a Bergmann MP-18, which was correct for 1917-1918.) You also get to see Peter Cushing in one of his last roles.

Other things required some suspension of belief, namely the Germans developing secret weapons in World War ONE.

But what ruined the movie for me was the god awful eighties pop music soundtrack, and a lead actor who has as much charisma as a wooden door. You can tell they were thinking of making a TV series or move franchise from this one, with different music and a better lead, they might have.