Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a film from 1991. That movie is "The Rocketeer".
I'm gonna be with you, guys, I know very little about the movie and the comics that came before it. As far as I know, the first time this character appeared was back in the early 80's, and I've heard nothing but good things about the comics. So who knows? If this movie turns out to be any good, I may be tempted to check out the comics at some point.
Now as far as the movie is concerned, I know this movie is considered to be a cult hit amongst fans who had seen this film. Granted, the movie bombed in theaters, but that still didn't stop from fans and critics from loving the movie. So, there is a possibility that I may end up enjoying it as well. I don't know if I'll love it as much as diehard fans have, but it is still possible.
Really, guys, the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is truly good at all is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Rocketeer".
8 minutes later
OK, I have a question here. So while Clifford's plane was in the air and losing oil at the same time, did nobody else on the ground see the other guy getting shot at by, what I'm going to assume are mobsters? Unless it was at another base, then I find it a little difficult to see how no one could've noticed all that happening. I mean, it's possible that they might've been too far away from anyone else noticing, but still, my point kinda stands.
30 seconds later
All right, never mind, they *do* acknowledge that it happened at their base. That's my fault for kinda jumping the gun there.
10 minutes later
OK, I was gonna ask why the hell Cliff and his buddy were taking a statue earlier on, but now I know why. They wanted to test out the rocket that was put in the seat of the plane. So, I guess that explains. Granted, I don't exactly remember *when* the rocket was put into the seat of the plane, because they never showed it, but I'm going to assume the guy that was outrunning the feds put it in the plane before trying to get away. Though that's just my guess, really.
15 minutes later
You know, guys, as amusing as it is to see Cliff accidentally ruining the set there, I do find it interesting to see how movies were made back in the late 30's. Granted, I don't know how often they used actual sets for castles, but it is still really interesting to see.
11 minutes later
I will say, guys, that the flying scene there after Cliff dons the costume was actually pretty cool. And pretty decently made for a movie made in 1991. That was rather impressive.
6 minutes later
So the feds are firing at the guy that Sinclaire had hired to get the rocket back, and he returns fire at them with only two pistols. And out of all that, the only thing that was hit was the guy's hat. I think it's safe to confirm that nobody in this movie can shoot for shit. Mind you, the guy was inside Cliff's house when they were firing at him from outside, but still, it kinda baffles me that nobody can shoot at each other for shit.
19 minutes later
OK, you know what? This movie knows how to be really funny when it wants to be. I really wasn't expecting that, but shit, I'm actually really digging this movie's humor a bit.
14 minutes later
So you're telling me that the Nazi's ultimate plan is to launch a group of jetpack soldiers, much like the Rocketeer's look, all around the world so that they can ultimately take over it. Granted, that plan sounds really goofy and cool...and yet, I still think it would fail considering, you know, Hitler and his army weren't exactly getting along with each other, especially during the last moments when they were in the bunker. But then again, this was also before WWII even started, so hey, maybe Hitler was actually somewhat of a competent leader then, who knows? Still, at least the plan sounds competent on paper.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "The Rocketeer". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. Well, I guess I can go ahead and state that this movie was actually really good. Now when I say it's really good, I'm not quite saying that the movie is great or anything. It does have a couple of things here and there that are sorta misses, but they're mostly minor stuff, which I'll get to later on.
Why don't we go ahead and start this review off by talking about the writing. Now I should first say that this movie is, what I would deem as a popcorn flick. Where you go into it with your brain shut off and you're bound to really enjoy it. Now that isn't to say that you couldn't put your own thoughts into it, like I always do with these sorts of reviews, but I do think it is a much better experience if you go into this movie with your brain shut off. Not that the movie is filling you in with some over-complicated plot or anything, but it is one of those movies that you can just go into and really enjoy it for how fun it really is. And I normally don't dig into blurbs for most movies, because blurbs are mostly worthless in the end. However, one of them mentions "Thrills and Fun", and I will say that it really does live up to being thrilling and fun. Which is why I think the movie works better if you go into it with your brain shut off.
I want to mention the film's humor next, because the movie is surprisingly really funny at times. The movie has quite a bit of humor in here that will guarantee to almost make you laugh. Now being that this film is from Disney, it is something to kinda expect, seeing as how their movies and TV shows is mainly targeted towards a family friendly audience. However, unlike the numerous films made for TV that they use to shit out on the Disney Channel, the humor in this one feels more natural in a way. A lot of it comes out of nowhere, especially during the scene where Cliff, as the Rocketeer, shoots out of a laundry shoot. That honestly caught me off guard and it made me kinda laugh a bit. Now granted, not all of the humor lands here. However, there is enough here to where you be guaranteed to get at least one laugh here or there.
Our characters here are all very likable and have tons of depths. I'm even including our villain, Neville Sinclair, who's both charming and creepy at the same time. I say that about the latter because of how close he gets to Jenny, who is Cliff's love interest in the movie. Cliff himself, as I said, is both likable as himself and as the Rocketeer. The only thing that seems a little bit off to me about him as the Rocketeer is that he doesn't really have any sort of combat abilities that makes him stand out. The only thing that he's mostly known for is the rocket pack that he uses to fly. But as for combat abilities, he really doesn't do much of that here aside from a little bit of it in the final act of the movie. Now who knows, if I ever get around to reading the comics, I may find out more on how he fights. But until then, this movie is all I've got to work with and it's not really much to go on for me.
Aside from that, our story here is really simple and easy to follow. Now again, seeing as how I haven't read any of the comics, I don't know how accurate this movie is to those comics, but what I can say is that it does capture the feel of how pulp comics were like at the time. From how the characters talk, to the set pieces of the time period. All of it looks and feels awesome. So yeah, writing here is really solid. The acting is also fantastic. Every actor in this movie is giving it their all and I couldn't find a single actor that phoned it in. Probably the best actor would have to be Timothy Dalton as the movie's villain. As I said before, the man knows how to play both charming and creepy at the same time. Everyone else, like I said, is just as good as Timothy Dalton was and that's really awesome to admit.
Special effects in this movie are...kind of a mixed bag. Now when I say that, I'm mostly referring to any of the flying scenes in this movie. I said earlier that they looked really cool when you first see them, but admittedly, some of the scenes have kinda aged poorly. The most noticeable ones are when you get to see them up close, and you can tell that it looks like the character was just chroma-keyed into the shot. I'd say the worst of them comes towards the very end where you get to see an explosion occur and it looks kinda terrible, especially when you have to see a character that's close to the fire effects of the explosion. Like I said, those shots looked really poor. However, those scenes are few and far and between. And they're really not that noticeable in the long run as long as you're not trying to look for it like I am, since I'm kinda prone to notice those details.
But aside from that, the costuming here is really good. The filmmakers went out of their to make sure everyone in this movie looked like they came from the late 30's, and it's really spot on. Camerawork here is pretty good. Lighting is lit perfectly fine. The sound-mixing here is good, too. The music here is great, since again, this movie is suppose to resemble the late 1930's and they even got some really good 1930's songs to back it up. The score itself isn't really all that great, but the songs themselves are fantastic. So yeah, I can say that most of the technical stuff here is perfectly fine, especially since it's from a major studio such as Disney.
So when all is said and done, guys, am I able to recommend "The Rocketeer". Yes, I certainly can. The movie is a really solid popcorn flick. If you, yourself is interested in checking this movie out, well, it's obviously out on every bit of home media, be it VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. Or if you somehow have Disney+, it should be available on there too. I wouldn't know, personally speaking, since I don't have Disney+ and am not bothering to get it anytime soon. But if it is on there, go ahead and check it out. It really is a good movie. I wouldn't say that I ended up loving it, but I can see why it gained a cult following. I'm happy to finally own a copy of this movie myself, so I'll definitely be adding to my DVD collection. Speaking of which, I'm kinda browsing through that at the moment and I noticed another film that I covered from Disney that I still have. I'm gonna go and watch "TRON" again because I haven't seen that one in a good while. So I'll go do that next once I get done with this review.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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