The Rocketeer (1991)

There's more fun to be had out of this movie than I'd expected. The story is given elsewhere so I'll pretty much skip it and get to the more important things, like the twenty-year-old Jennifer Connelly with her eyes of night and lips as bright as flame. She's a bit plumper (all over) than we're used to seeing her but it's okay because cartoon figures ought to be slightly overdone. She looks and sounds magnificent -- those two monumental and nacreous incisors, I guess. She could open mangoes with those teeth. Not that she's as beautiful as any woman possibly could be. Connelly COULD be better looking but if she were it would probably be against some law. Anyway, it would be hard for any normal man to stop from flinging himself at her feet and groveling over her toes.

Bill Campbell looks like a cartoon too. In fact everyone in the movie looks like a cartoon except the guy playing the huge thug working for Paul Sorvino. That guy doesn't look like a cartoon. He looks exactly like Rondo Hatten, an acromegalic actor from a few 40s horror flicks. But, it must be admitted, Rondo Hatten looked like a cartoon. And, well, if A = C and B = C, then A = B, no? It's a conundrum alright.

The movie is filled with delicious 1938 atmosphere. I wasn't around to enjoy it but it's always struck a resonant chord in me when I glimpse it in movies or listen to recordings from the period.

Here we have an Artie Shaw sort of band playing "Begin the Beguine" with a close simulation of that famous arrangement that made it such a hit. A smiling singer who looks like Nicole Kidman stands on the stage and sings without rolling around or smashing a guitar. Call me retro, but I prefer it to Snoop Dog Eeeze 2 Dudes. All seriousness aside, what happened to pop music anyway? Where are our Cole Porters and Ira Gershwins. Somebody hand me a hankie.

The production designer deserves a medal for capturing the exhilarating vulgarity of Southern California. I think I glimpsed a reproduction of Benvenuto Cellini's Apollo amidst the faux Egyptian columns.

I enjoyed the airplanes too. The one in the beginning of the movie was built exclusively for racing. (I forget its designation.) It was a horror to fly because it was hardly more than a huge engine with a tiny airplane built around it, as unstable a craft as ever took wing. Scary news footage exists of one of them zipping along at a tremendous rate and then, out of nowhere, kaboom, spinning deliriously into the ground at full speed. The 1930s were famous for their air races, like NASCAR is today. Heroes were made out of aviators. Airplanes that later became famous as fighters in WWII were first configured as racers -- Curtis P-40s, for instance, and the British Spitfires.

Of course it's an imitation of the Indiana Jones series and maybe an imitation of some Indiana Jones imitations, a kind of meta-imitation, but, gee, it's enjoyable. What atmosphere. And lots of action. Everybody and everything is turned into mincemeat one way or another but not in any way that's offensive.

It's really kind of engaging if you don't ask for significance.

Fmovies: The Rocketeer is a great action movie and fun to watch. Since it is set in the 1930s, the movie doesn't fail to effectively give it a nice '30s throwback look and feel to it. Bill Campbell did a good job as Cliff, aka the Rocketeer. Timothy Dalton's performance as the villainous Neville Sinclair, a Nazi in disguise, was a far cry from his role as James Bond, but effective nonetheless.

I read that there had been plans to make The Rocketeer a trilogy. It's too bad it never happened. It's hard not to wonder what might have been if the film had successfully spawned any sequels. But I would hope that we would have been given stories just as good as the original film, if not better.

In my humble opinion, no only is The Rocketeer is an enjoyable movie, but it's one of the best action films of 1991.

Disney hasn't made a whole lot of movies over the last decade that have really been able to capture my interest. One of their better efforts, 1991's "The Rocketeer," is one of the luckier films.

"The Rocketeer" soared high and mighty upon its release in 1991, from the graphic novel by Dave Stevens and onto the big screen, with Cliff Secord (Bill Campbell) dawning an experimental rocket pack that is coveted by gangsters and Nazis during World War II.

The movie does remind some people of the serials of the 1930s and 1940s, some of which helped to spawn the mega-successful "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981 and this year's "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow."

"The Rocketeer" is a great movie, and it should be viewed by everyone.

10/10

The Rocketeer fmovies. In 1938, in Los Angeles, the pilot Cliff Secord (Bill Campbell) crashes his plane after being hit in the air in a shoot-out between gangsters and FBI agents in a car chase; completely broken, his best friend and mechanics A. 'Peevy' Peabody (Alan Arkin) tries to fix an old plane to raise some money in an exhibition show. However, Cliff finds a package hidden by one of the gangsters with a rocket with belts and they find that the device allows man to fly. Meanwhile, his beloved girlfriend and aspirant actress Jenny Blake (Jennifer Connelly) succeeds in an audition to make a small part in a movie of the great actor Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton) that is ranked the third in box-offices. During a flight exhibition, the mechanic Malcolm (Eddie Jones) has an accident, and Cliff uses the rocket to save him, being called Rocketeer by the public. With his picture in the front page of the newspaper, Cliff is chased by the FBI, the gangsters and German spies that abduct Jenny and forces Cliff to rescue her.

"Rocketeer" is a delightful adventure that recalls those classics from the old times of Hollywood. There is a handsome hero, a gorgeous heroine, gangsters, Nazi spies, betrayals, in a pace of cartoons with a magnificent art decoration, cars and costumes recreating Hollywood in the late 30's. The story has great lines and uses real characters, like Clark Gable and Howard Hughes, in fictional situations. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Rocketeer"

I liken this movie to movies such as "Indiana Jones" or "The Mummy". It's one of those action-packed, adventurous movies with just enough romance, humor, and drama to make it in my top five movies of all time list. Cool special effects and happy ending. It's safe enough for kids, satisfying for parents, and teens probably enjoy it the most. Set in the 1940's, it stays true to its setting and gives a good look back at what American culture was like then. It gives a little history lesson, too (Howard Hughes, Nazis, etc.) The acting is also wonderful- probably Billy Campbell's ("Enough") best performance, Timothy Dalton plays a great villian, and Arkin always does good. Jennifer Connelly, who recently made it big in "A Beautiful Mind", looks surprisingly different, but still quite pretty. Her performance is also grade-A.

Who wouldn't want a jet pack? EVERYONE should see this movie.

This movie has the tendency to fly off the screen at you, especially if you saw it on the big screen like I did. I was 9 years old when the Rocketeer came out, and after seeing it I couldn't help but day dream about flying, and winning over the girl. Of course I tended to have the same day dreams after watching Superman the movie. But this film is a little different. It seemed more believable to me, as a kid, in that it incorporated some semi historical facts with the story line. I believe it to be one of Disney's finnest films, perhaps a modern epic. It's one of those films you've got to watch at least once a year. However I do have a question concerning it, "How did the Rocketeer manage with all those flames blasting at his ass?"