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“Born to Fly,” a flashy, adrenaline-pumping film from the Chinese director Liu Xiaoshi, has a lot in common with “Top Gun.” Like Tom Cruise’s Maverick, Lei Yu (Wang Yibo) is a cocky fighter pilot with big potential. Yu is sent to a flight school for exceptional test pilots, who fly next-generation planes to their breaking points. The academy then gathers data from the extreme flights to train combat fliers. Yu, again with echoes of Maverick, starts out declaring, “No one knows the limits better than I do,” before becoming a team player.
The pleasures of “Born to Fly” come from the aerial acrobatics. This is a film that begins with the sound of a sonic boom and doesn’t slow down. There are fiery crashes, along with close bonds between the characters. And fast planes give viewers, as Maverick put it, exactly what they crave: “the need for speed.”
‘Boudica’Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.
This movie is a rip-roaring take on the Iceni queen Boudica, who led a revolt against the Roman Empire in the first century. The story begins as the emperor enacts a law barring women from holding positions of authority, which puts Boudica (Olga Kurylenko) at risk after a Roman general kills her husband, the king, to take over their land. Both of her daughters are also murdered, and only the loyalty of her people saves her. Intent on revenge, Boudica, with the rugged warrior Wolfgar (Peter Franzen), organizes to hunt the Romans.
Jesse V. Johnson, the writer and director, has produced a bloody historical epic, featuring gory beheadings and brutal dismemberments. Boudica is transformed from elegant queen to steely fighter through tactile makeup and hairstyling. This is a big, silly take on history that provides plenty of escapist entertainment.
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