Rocketeer

A great action adventure film from 1991 that proves to be enormous fun.

They don't make them like this any more.

This movie had a lot of hype around it before it was released. So much, I think, that many people were disappointed when it finally arrived in theaters. There were posters galore and rumors that Jennifer Connelly and Bill Campbell were dating, etc., etc.

It's too bad, as it's a nifty little film with LOTS of special little touches. What I really appreciated were wonderful little homages to the 1930s and 1940s--such as showing Campbell flying a Gee Bee Racer (how they did this scene I don't know), extensive Art Deco styling in the movie, the zeppelin and the villain on the zeppelin that was made to look exactly like Rondo Hatton--a very seldom talked about actor who starred in just a handful of horror-suspense movies of that era. After all, how many would remember Hatton and the Gee Bee Racer? I like these little touches.

Aside from all this, it's a good film. Great, maybe not, but very different and a nice tribute to the Commander Cody films (which featured a jet packed hero in movie serials).

I love this film. Absolutely love it. Can't help it. I'm a child of the 40s and this movie is about when I was a kid. The sets are great, the story is 40s, the cars, the cafe with the bizarre little gingerbread giving an impression of a gnome's hangout, the costumes, the hero with his wiffle hair style, the airplanes and even Howard Hughes. What more could you want? No, this isn't The Matrix with a lot of slick computer effects with mind twisting is it or isn't it real. It's clear who the bad guys are-- and they're bad, except when, of course, the mob types are swept away by patriotic feelings and fight the Nazis. It's got it all. A wonderful trip back into the 40s with near superhuman villans, beyond the pale heros and lovable sidekicks.

This film's a bit of a hard sell to general audiences. There have been more than a few knowing homages to serials (the Indiana Jones series being the most obvious), but this isn't really one of those. Rather than making a modern film that references old films, this is pretty much a serial with a $40 million budget and (at the time) modern effects. It's deliberately old fashioned and will work for you to the extent that you enjoy action stuff from simpler times. I do ... so I enjoy this.

I've always surprised when people don't like this movie. It was one of my favorites at the time, and it has aged very well. It's a real "retro 30's" picture, like "The Shadow", instead of being a modern reinterpretation of such movies like the Indiana Jones films (which I also like very much).

The reviews cover the plot enough, and there are no real surprises here, but it's great family fun. My kids really love this movie, and I end up watching it every year or two, and I have never tired of it. When it came out there were apparently sequels planned, but it got killed at the box office by T2, which ran over everything that summer, so Disney never did anything with the show. They have recycled the atmosphere and the music in the "Soaring over California" ride at DCA, and I have to say it always makes me wistful that the movie never got a sequel.

By the way, the movie doesn't follow the comics that closely, which I don't mind, but if you are a purist and a fan of the "graphic novels", you might keep that in mind.