Cliff Secord 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 mechanic 'Peevy' tries to fix an old plane to raise some money in an exhibition show.
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 succeeds in an audition to make a small part in a movie of the great actor Neville Sinclair.
During a flight exhibition, mechanic Malcolm 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 the German spies that abduct Jenny.....
Way ahead of its time, but maybe a little too soon after the last crusade, the Rocketeer was the second most original film of a very weird 1991 blockbuster summer.
It's fun in the sense that it was ignored on its initial release,and has been ever since. This was Disneys big release in 1991, and this film is like the first POTC film flopping, they threw a lot of money at this, and somehow, all the marketing did nothing.
It harks back to the films of the thirties, where all the bad guys were slick,a nd the good guys were just too good for their own good.
And this is where the film falters. Where Indiana Jones had the swagger and the attitude, Secord is all happy and apologetic, and very bland at times.
Thank heavens for Dalton, who steals the show as the dastardly villain, who goes from smooth to outrageous Nazi in a matter of seconds. It's pure pantomime stuff, but it works in this.
The effects are okay, and Johnston can do this era in his sleep, the direction is flawless, as is the cinematography.
It's a shame about the bland lead.
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 succeeds in an audition to make a small part in a movie of the great actor Neville Sinclair.
During a flight exhibition, mechanic Malcolm 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 the German spies that abduct Jenny.....
Way ahead of its time, but maybe a little too soon after the last crusade, the Rocketeer was the second most original film of a very weird 1991 blockbuster summer.
It's fun in the sense that it was ignored on its initial release,and has been ever since. This was Disneys big release in 1991, and this film is like the first POTC film flopping, they threw a lot of money at this, and somehow, all the marketing did nothing.
It harks back to the films of the thirties, where all the bad guys were slick,a nd the good guys were just too good for their own good.
And this is where the film falters. Where Indiana Jones had the swagger and the attitude, Secord is all happy and apologetic, and very bland at times.
Thank heavens for Dalton, who steals the show as the dastardly villain, who goes from smooth to outrageous Nazi in a matter of seconds. It's pure pantomime stuff, but it works in this.
The effects are okay, and Johnston can do this era in his sleep, the direction is flawless, as is the cinematography.
It's a shame about the bland lead.