Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Arguably the best superhero comic book film adaptation of all-time, which may in large part be because the comic is a loving tribute to movie serials (ALA Commando Cody). Disney had sequels and a franchise in mind when they made this film. However, although it was not a box office bomb, it was a financial disappointment. I think the main problems is that it was marketed as a Disney film, instead of being a PG-13 superhero film that's slightly more adult and risqué, especially when you have Jennifer Connolly in a role that in the comic was a not so thinly veiled rendition of pin-up queen Bettie Page. The film and the comic revolve around 1930s stunt pilot Cliff Secord finding an experimental rocket pack, which he and his trusty mechanic buddy/mentor sidekick uses to fight gangsters and Nazi's infiltrating Hollywood on the eve of WWII. Director Joe Johnston ("October Sky" and "Captain America: The First Avenger") along with screenwriters Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo (writers of the underrated "Zone Troopers" and "Trancers", along with Frank Darabont reportedly doing some uncredited work), perfectly capture the tone of Dave Stevens' comic book series, capturing the serene innocence and sweetness of the series, but minus the naughty sexuality of Stevens' Bettie Page surrogate character, which was morphed into "Jenny" in the form of Jennifer Connolly, who could easily have captured to same sort of innocent sexuality that Stevens' created in his comic book version of Page. Stevens reportedly had a large hand in the production of the film, and what ends up on screen feels very much in line with the comic book source material. The sets, casting (which besides the always excellent Connolly, who won the role over the likes of Sherilyn Fenn [who'd have also been excellent], Kelly Preston, Diane Lane and Elizabeth McGovern, includes Billy Cambell as Secord (who is PERFECT casting and won the role over much bigger names like Kevin Costner, Matthew Modine, Emilio Estevez, Bill Paxton, Dennis Quaid, Kurt Russell, Johnny Depp, Vincent D'Onofrio, Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Robin Williams, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Ron Perlman, and Tom Hanks), Alan Arkin as Cliff's sidekick Peevy, Timothy Dalton as Neville Sinclair, a villainous Erroll Flynn analogue, Paul Sorvino as a gangster, Terry O'Quinn as Howard Hughes, and a slew of great character actors such as Ed Lauter, Jon Polito, Eddie Jones, William Sanderson, Margo Martindale, Clint Howard, Tiny Ron (in some great Rick Baker make-up, turning him into a spot-on to Rondo Hatton lookalike), Max Grodénchik, famed stuntman Dick Warlock, and more). The film really is nearly irresistible. The cast and characters are endearing and charming. The action is exciting and fun. The romanticized version of 1930s Hollywood is a fun imaginary time capsule that anyone who loves classic films and this period will immediately want to jump onto the screen and live in that time and place (which is most certainly true for me and may be why I love this film so much). Dave Stevens reportedly gave the film's production designer his entire reference library pertaining to the Rocketeer at that time period, including blueprints for hangars and bleachers, schematics for building the autogyro, photos and drawings of the Bulldog Cafe, the uniforms for the air circus staff, and contacts for locating the vintage aircraft that were to be used. Stevens said they "literally just took the reference and built the sets". Additionally, James Horner's music is wistfully nostalgia as well as exciting for the adventure and action elements of the story. Hiro Narita photography is bright and vibrant, perfectly capturing the shine of this imaginary Hollywood. My only complaint about the film is that is was mistakenly made as a Disney film, which softened it too much. Connolly's character should have been allowed to be a tad closer to her pin-up queen source material, and the action should have been allowed to be dialed up a few notches. Outside of the Tim Burton "Batman" film, comic book film adaptations were not a big thing when this movie came out, so superhero films were not exactly the cultural zeitgeist that they are today, and I believe that if this film had come out twenty years later that it would have been a much more successful. Overall, anyone who is a fan of old fashioned Hollywood adventure films or of comic book film adaptations should absolutely check out this under appreciated film.

Despite being produced by Walt Disney Pictures, this is not really a movie for kids. It is actually quite violent for a Disney movie and primarily aimed at a male audience. Presumably, the Disney tag was one of the reasons why the movie failed to become a box office success back in 1991 as people mistook it for a kids' movie.'The Rocketeer' is far from that! In fact, it is a very entertaining and fun adventure movie reminiscent of the Indiana Jones trilogy with its Nazi themes, the television spin off 'The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones'—in which this movie's director, Joe Johnston, was involved, too—and also of the old James Bond movies from the 1960s and 1970s with their exaggeratedly quirky villains. Coincidentally or maybe intentionally, the movie's main villain is portrayed by Timothy Dalton, who took on the role of James Bond two times and is excellent here as the charming but fanatical antagonist.While the screenplay could have been better, the great actors and especially the fantastic, action-packed and visually striking finale make up for what the plot is lacking in direction. Joe Johnston is a capable director with a distinct style that is present in virtually all of the movies he has directed, including 'Captain America: The First Avenger' (2011), which is similar to this movie in a number of aspects.The cast of 'The Rocketeer' is simply superb and includes a number of very fine character actors and some big names, too. I mean, look at that excellent cast list: Alan Arkin, Paul Sorvino, Terry O'Quinn, Jon Polito, Ed Lauter, William Sanderson, Margo Martindale... These actors have been in like every movie ever made! Billy Campbell is decent in the lead role, even though he is not the greatest actor around, but he carries this movie quite well. It makes you wonder why his film career never really took off afterward. He is familiar of course, mostly from television, but he is not a big name. The beautiful and classy Jennifer Connelly is the icing on the cake of the cast. She is a very good actress and an absolute delight to watch. What a mighty fine lady!

As a fan of classic Hollywood cinema, how can I not love The Rocketeer? I delight in all those old Hollywood references, from lines such as "You stood behind Myrna Loy with a bowl of grapes", to a movie set very similar to the castle interior from The Adventures of Robin Hood. I even find myself thinking this film's protagonist has pretty sweet life going for him; he gets to fly planes all day, has a hot aspiring actress girlfriend and lives in 1930's Hollywood. The cast of The Rocketeer have that cartoony look which stars of the 1930's possessed; even one of the film's villains is modelled after Rondo Hatton, a not well known b-movie player with a uniquely disfigured face. The film also provides a nostalgic look at the golden age of aviation; ah for the days when aviation was a gentleman's pursuit, back before every Joe Sweatsock could wedge himself behind a lunch try and jet off to Raleigh-Durham.Why do these pulp serial adventures keep failing at the box office (The Shadow, The Phantom, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). Of course The Rocketeer's lack of box office success cancelled plans for an intended trilogy. Are audiences just not interested in these kinds of films, or do they just keep getting poorly marketed. Either way, this is why we can't have nice things.Timothy Dalton is the one of who steals the show as the Errol Flynn- esque Neville Sinclair. Dalton really is one of the last of his kind, as a Shakespearean trained actor who can play these types debonair, hammy villains, both here and his role in Hot Fuzz. Interestingly Errol Flynn himself has had (hopefully untrue) posthumous accusations of being Nazi sympathiser. What's scarier than Nazis? The Rocketeer has the answer: Rocket propelled Nazis who can travel across the Atlantic on their jet packs.My only complaint with The Rocketeer and the only aspect which prevents me from awarding the movie with the mighty 10, is the lead protagonist Cliff Secord played by Billy Campbell, whom I find not to be terribly interesting. While it could be argued he's supposed to be dull in keeping with the tradition of B-movie serials having bland leading men. Still I would rather have a more charismatic screen presence but when a movie still manages to be this much fun despite this nor do I ever care in the slightest as why the rocket blasts to not burn of the back of Cliff's legs, it's defiantly doing something right.

When it first came out, I remember enjoying the first 30 minutes of this movie, then finding it a bit slow. This time around, I found myself appreciating the tribute aspects a bit more and enjoyed it in its entirety. You'll like this movie a lot more if you know about the era and the real life counterparts of the characters that are referenced and portrayed. Without that knowledge, the movie might appear far more naive than it actually is. The acting is generally spot on for the tribute tone of the movie and both the leads are outrageously good-looking people. If memory serves I developed a slight crush on Ms. Connelly after my original viewing of this movie. I'm sure I wasn't alone. I'm not sure it didn't happen this time. This was filmed long before she joined the Hollywood cult of the anorexic.The FX are nicely done and the science is perfectly out of whack considering the genre that the film mimics. All in all, I appreciate this movie and its honoring the past without becoming a schmaltz-fest. It's an action movie done in a thoughtful manner. I Like It.