The Rocketeer

Rating:
Summary: Up, Up and Away!
Review: Back in the 1930s the pulp magazine character Buck Rogers made the leap to the comic strips and carried his popular "rocket pack" with him. It wasn't used in the Universal Serial, nor in the later t.v. series of the 1980s, but the rocket pack was a fan favorite and got "lifted" by several other entrepreneurs for use in their own high adventure efforts.
Most notably, it was lifted by Republic Pictures for use in its 1949 serial "King of the Rocketmen". Proving popular there, it was recycled into a flying device for the character "Commando Cody" (not "Commander" Cody, as many people erroneously believe) in the chapterplay "Radar Men From the Moon",on then into "Zombies of the Stratosphere"(with young Leonard Nimoy as an alien baddie) and, lastly, into the tv series "Commando Cody" with Judd Holdren. The famous rocket back pack ,strapped to a hip-length leather jacket and complemented by the metallic, bullet-shaped helmet of the wearer, became a staple of 50s adventurism.
Years later artist Dave Stevens wanted to do a comic book version of the Rocketman/Commando Cody character but Republic wouldn't license it...so Stevens revamped the entire concept and created the Rocketeer instead.Threw in "Bondage Bettie" Page for eye candy (and perilous predicaments), and had himself a winner.
When Disney decided to do the Rocketeer as a live action "pilot" for a proposed series, they made a good decision. They just didn't market it correctly and made too abrupt a decision not to continue with it.
This is a good movie. It could have been better, but it is good nonetheless. My complaints about it are twofold storywise; one, I think they should have left "Bettie" alone and played an inside joke with the audience. They should have had her elaborately TIED UP at some point. The kiddies wouldn't have gotten the joke, but the more "culturally informed" would have gotten a snicker out of it. Secondly, they went with Charles Higham's thoroughly discredited "Errol Flynn was a Nazi spy" humbug and, in so doing, helped continue this unjustified smear.Even calling him "Neville Sinclair" didn't disguise the allusion of the portrayal, nor did Tim Dalton's oh-so-Flynn-like make up job.
Those points aside, this IS a captivating little adventure. The flying scenes are great, and the zeppelin climax is a real winner...as is the cool idea of a Rondo "Creeper" Hatton "goon" achieved via SFX makeup.

This digital transfer is NOT that great, but maybe it'll be re-done sometime in the future. Lets hope so. In the meantime, we have what we have. The movie itself is well worth watching. Enjoyable and endearing. Go with it.

Rating:
Summary: A good Disney adventure!
Review: The Rocketeer is another 'comic book' movie based on the adventures from the 80s. The laid back airplane pilot Cliff Secord (Bill Campbell) has tested a new plane for the nationals but they find that the plane is a failure (I won't spoil it with why it was). Upon landing, he disovers in another plane there is a mysterious object. Him and his boss test it out and flies like crazy! Stunned, Cliff learns that it is some kind of a jetpack! The Nazis want it, though, and trace Secord. Using his girl Jenny (Jennifer Connelly)the evil Neville Pillsar (Timothy Dalton) the famous actor who works with her gets Cliff to try to give up the pack. But when he learns it is for evil and that Pillsar is a Nazi, he must bash with him and his gang. This suspensful adventure is a great family movie and is just plain fun all the way through! You won't be upset with this movie!

Rating:
Summary: Thrilling and Fun
Review: This is a fun movie that nearly everyone will enjoy. Of course it's silly and far fetched, and terribly unrealistic, but that doesn't really matter now does it?

Bill Campell stars as the Rocketeer, but the real treat is seeing Jennifer Connely before she was launched to Oscar Winning stardom. I also really enjoy Timothy Dalton's performance, it's too bad we haven't seen him in anything recently.

The only thing I would say to parents is that there is a good bit of gunplay, some people die and there is some cursing, but no matter what this is a fun movie with an innocent charm that all will enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: a love letter to the pulp serials of the '30 and '40s
Review: Along with Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy, The Rocketeer is a vastly underrated film that, despite the big time promotion by Disney, failed to capture a mainstream audience. Perhaps most people were too jaded to be sucked into the film's retro-optimism. Johnston and company really captured the vibe of the old pulp serials so well in this film -- the attention to detail is fantastic.

The leads are appealing and charismatic. There is a real chemistry between Bill Campbell and Jennifer Connelly -- they were a couple in real life at the time, which I'm sure didn't hurt.

As far as comic book adaptations go, The Rocketeer is quite faithful to its source material with the notable exception of the Disney-fication of Connelly's character which is understandable. Her more Betty Page-esque comic book counterpart might have given the film a problem securing a PG rating. No matter, this is a fine adaptation and one only hopes that Disney will replace this bare bones DVD with a lavish special edition as they have done with both Tron and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

Rating:
Summary: Two beautiful people
Review: This movie has two of the most beautiful people to ever grace the screen: Jennifer Connelly and Billy Campbell.
Forget the story, forget the Nazis, forget the characterizations, this movie is about the beauty of the leads.
It's an okay movie, it's fun and the score is great but gosh those two.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, poor DVD
Review: The Rocketeer should be way bigger than it is. It's got great art direction, great characters, great music, and one of the first performances of Jennifer Connelly. It's a very fun and well-done adventure film, the likes of which I've not seen elsewhere since.

Unfortunately, the DVD treatment given this movie is terrible. The image quality is mostly awful, especially during the early night scenes (testing the rocket). Check out the artifacting jumping across the night sky that should be a rich black. Bleh.

On top of poor image quality, there are no extras to speak of whatsoever. I'd love to see a Vista Series re-release of this, especially using the great art-deco illustration movie poster for the cover (instead of a stupid actor collage).

This is probably the best way to view The Rocketeer right now, but that's not saying much yet. Here's hoping this film gets the treatment it deserves.

Rating:
Summary: Rocketeer to the rescue!!!
Review: Oh yeah! I love, love, LOOOOVVVE this film!! The Rocketeer in my opinion was THE best film of 1991 (time sure flies, pardon the pun)! Based on the old comic book series by reknowned girlie pinup artist/graphic designer/comic artist, Dave Stevens, the Rocketeer was loosely inspired by the old Commander Cody TV series. The plot revolves around a dashing young stunt pilot down on his luck who happens to stumble upon a stolen experimental portable rocket pack that can be worn on the back allowing the wearer to fly. He now thinks that Lady Luck may have smiled on him at last. But unknownst to him, a whole bunch of other folks want the rocket pack as well including the Nazis and the mob! Now the chase really begins! The story is a rip roaring, rocket propelled adventure involving everything from international espionage, Howard Hughes, to Golden Age Hollywood. Tongue in the cheek, fast, and fun from beginning to end with a wonderfully rousing score, fantastic special effects, and action sequences that will take your breath away!!! This film is just WOW!!!

It should be noted that the love interest/heroine - Jenny, played by Jennifer Connelly was originally based on 50's pinup queen Bettie Page in the comics, but for copyright reasons was altered both in name and physical appearance for this movie.

Unfortunately, despite the rave reviews and enthusiastic audience response when the Rocketeer was first released, it was somewhat left behind in the dust by then summer juggernaught, Terminator 2, and largely neglected (earning a respectable but unimpressive $60 million, while the film costed $40 million). Sigh, there is truly no justice in the world. The producers later admitted to marketing the film wrong (it was a film for everyone, and not a Disney-ish kiddie movie), and not enough movie goers were lured in as a result. People simply don't know what they're missing, and that's a real shame! Don't make that mistake again! Get the film, see it, feel it, love it!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, cruddy transfer
Review: For those of you who don't know about this movie, read the other posts here. What I'm going to talk about is the poor video quality of this release.

To start, the framing has been noticably cropped from its original 2.35:1 Panavision scope aspect ratio. If you are familiar with the original widescreen/letterbox laserdisc that Disney released, you'll find that this DVD sports the exact same composite video transfer with all of its inherent problems intact. No new high definition master was created for this release.

The only thing of merrit is that the ORIGINAL 5.1 surround track was used to encode it to Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. Yup, the packaging is in error. You're in for a treat as the split surround channels are pretty darn active considering it was mixed in the early days of 5.1 digital surround equipped cinemas.

Hopefully, Disney will re-do this DVD in the near future. They created a fresh transfer for The Santa Clause SE, so why not the superior The Rocketeer??

Rating:
Summary: Medicore Movie, Poor Disney DVD production...
Review: This movie as well as all of Joe Johnson's movies are medicore are best, Cheesy at worst. The DVD here was very poorly done with muted sound and picture quality, as if it was taken from a bad film print. You can add Disney to the list of those who makes cheap DVDs.

Rating:
Summary: Rocket Man Going To Fly Away.
Review: This charming movie stars Bill Campbell as a young, clean-cut pilot who ends up getting accidently shot down by some FBI agents while test flying a plane. In the process, the crooks the Feds were chasing stash the stolen goods in the airplane hanger. Cliff (Campbell) finds the stolen goods and begins his adventures as the Rocketeer. The movie co-stars Jennifer Connelly as Cliff's girlfriend, Alan Arkin as Cliff's mentor, and Timothy Dalton as a Hollywood screen idol/secret Nazi spy.

The film is full of family friendly action. The sets are marvelous and the costumes are just right for the era. In fact, the tone of the film is perfect for the time (1938) it is set in. Like many others, I'm not quite sure why this movie was never really big at the BO. I remember seeing it during my freshman year in high school with my kid brother and we both loved it and still do.