The Rocketeer 25th Anniversary

[Alex Murphy]

Joe Johnston's first comic book adaptation premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on June 19, 1991.

 

[Octoberist]

Love it!

 

[Jake Cassidy]

Jennifer Connelly

 

[Dave McFly]

one of my fave films of that year it still holds up amazingly well, great visuals, great music by the late great James Horner and as Jake said Jennifer Connelly

 

[Mysteryman]

One of my all time faves.
And yes, it most certainly still holds up.

 

[Quasimod0]

I really like this movie. Saw it for the first time a couple years ago and instantly fell in love.

 

[Galactus10]

I need to watch this.

Always heard great things but I have never seen this movie

 

[Dave McFly]

it is a shame Joe did not has as a big a career as he should he has only done like a handful of movies and every one of them I loved (even Jurassic Park III).

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Honestly... The film is a production design dream, so well done on that level, great SFX for it's time and cool make up and costuming, and it was great casting Dalton as the villain, a vaguely Errol Flynn-ish type, and Jen C. looks good, as she always did during that period... But I can't say I like anything but the "look" of this film. It's never been all that exciting, it kind of wants to be "Fun" but I could never get into it. Great to look at but I just didn't care about anything. It's a bit lifeless to me, which is kind of how I feel about CAPTAIN AMERICA THE FIRST AVENGER as well. That film was powered by Evans in the role of the hero. He basically makes the film what it is with his performance. Billy Campbell was just bland in Rocketeer. I know it's currently the unpopular opinion to have about the film but I have found it to be a mostly forgettable film really.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

very underrated movie

 

[Jake Cassidy]

Jennifer Connelly's extraordinary beauty makes it unforgettable.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Jennifer Connelly's extraordinary beauty makes it unforgettable.

Hey I mentioned how good she looked but almost everything else is kinda,meh for me.

 

[Jake Cassidy]

You may not have good taste in movies but you have great taste in women. t:

 

[Doctor Jones]

it is a shame Joe did not has as a big a career as he should he has only done like a handful of movies and every one of them I loved (even Jurassic Park III).

It could be because he's considered "old" and when you don't make recurring hits people don't want to work with you. L.A. is a superficial town.

 

[Aximili86]

Watched this again last night with a couple buddies, gonna do The Shadow & The Phantom sometime over the next few weekends as a sort of "pulp stuff we loved as kids" thing.

Gah, still so good. Photography, set design, casting, score, the works. Always wished The First Avenger leaned a little more in this "real-world-but-heightened-WWII" approach (the first half was perfect there though), no laser guns and more time-appropriate-looking Hydra goons and all.

Probably always gonna be my favorite comic movie, honestly, simple as it is. Loved it at 6, did at 16, still do now.

Gotta laugh at Dalton inexplicably being all "Ach du lieber, achtung, SCHNELL!" after the reveal though, haha. After spending the entire movie speaking in a perfect clipped British-guy accent, he turns all Colonel Klink voice. I sort of love it though, it fits in all its silliness.

Forgot Melora Hardin, Jan from The Office, is the cheesy club singer too.

And yes, 1991 Connelly, eep! And that goddamn Horner score, doesn't get any more perfect. Hell, even Campbell's really cool in the lead - not much an actor, but I suspect that's sort of half the point, Johnston really aces that whole "not just set in 1938, but approach the entire movie like we're making it as if it's 1938" thing. Campbell rocks the "aw shucks, gee willickers!" thing so well. Back when this was made he would have even been a pretty decent choice for Cap, has the look & voice and basically way more physically imposing than Evans, more Hemsworth height.

Came across this DeviantArt thing on google images too, man that'd make for a badass poster. Captures the flick perfectly.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

I love it. Dalton was a great badguy.

 

[Aximili86]

So, this new line of comics launching is kind of interesting. Combined with the young-kid's animated show, wonder if they're pushing these things to test the waters for that movie sequel that was mentioned a while ago?

I'm actually more than fine with the female African-American pilot idea, getting into some Tuskegee Airmen type of stuff could be really cool in a Rocketeer context. The fact the new comics are modern-set is the bit I find lame though. A legacy passing-on-the-torch story is cool, but this property's gotta stay period, it's too much a part of the thing.

Always thought an animated Rocketeer sequel would have been the way to go (you could still have Campbell & Connelly, voices don't change as much over this much time), but hope this new film actually happens. Won't be checking out the new comic line (the modern setting's too much of a turnoff), and the animated thing seems like it's gonna skew really young, but wondering if these two peripheral things with the brand might mean the movie's coming along quietly in preproduction-land. Hope so.

 

[Hunter Rider]

This film is such a fun watch, it never gets old as it just has a charm you can't help but love.

 

[samsnee]

I love the score. Best scene for me is when Paul Sorvino realizes he’s working with Nazis and says he’s an American first. Simpler times I guess when it wasn’t controversial to punch a Nazi.

 

[Aximili86]

And there it gets political, whoo, 2018. Valentine doesn't want to deal with actual Nazis, not just people who disagree on policy.

Yeah, the score's killer though. Man I miss real music in movies, don't get enough of it nowadays. Horner was the man. Poor guy.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

What Valentine should have said was that there were good people on both sides.

 

[Aximili86]

Heh.

 

[Aximili86]

Heh, just watched some pretty entertaining run-down of this on Youtube too, couple of dudes watching it again 20 years after loving it as kids.

Some pretty interesting points brought up, like how "dark" kids-movies could get back in the day, the type of stuff you wouldn't exactly get away with now. Lothar in this movie would never fly in a PG flick now, breaking every bone in two guy's bodies and basically bending them in half, and that pretty damn gratuitous "boob shot" of Jennifer in the W.C. Fields scene. Kinda funny, how much you could get away with in a core-Disney-brand film circa '91.