The Blue Angels (2024)

As recruitment pitches go, The Blue Angels is a stunner. As a portrait of the people in the jets, it never gets off the runway. Paul Crowder follows the Navy’s 2022 demonstration team, led by Capt. Brian Kesselring, through pilot selection, training and a packed season of shows. On the ground it’s polite to a fault, and if there was friction behind the scenes, it stayed in the hangar. In the air, it’s another animal. The IMAX cameras were too big for the cockpits, so the crew flew them in a helicopter that slipped right into the team’s performance airspace, and every shot is real, no CGI. The formations fill the screen so tightly you’ll grip your armrest, and the vapor trails peeling off the wings are gorgeous. It holds an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 6.9 because the flying is breathtaking and the people stay polished. $39.26 says you crane your neck at the next jet over your house and call out the formation like you’re on the team.

What works: The real, effects-free flight footage on an IMAX screen is spectacular, especially with the camera helicopter flying inside the team’s formation airspace.

What doesn’t: The ground-level material is surface-deep and squeaky clean, with no real conflict, and it often plays like a polished ad for the Navy.

Who it’s for: Air show regulars, aviation nerds and anyone who wants to feel a fighter formation on the biggest screen possible.