The Rocketeer

Rocketeer is directed by Joe Johnston and co-written by Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo and William Dear. It is based on Dave Stevens' comic book The Rocketeer. It stars Billy Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin, Timothy Dalton and Paul Sorvino. Music is scored by James Horner and cinematography by Hiro Narita.

It took eight years to get to the screen, with many rewrites, changes in personal, changes in setting and etc, the only thing consistent was Disney's inconsistency. Once out the film received generally positive reviews but posted only a small profit, in the wake of a Tim Burton inspired reinvention of the Super Hero genre, Rocketeer fell away into cultdom, sequels planned were shelved and its reputation remains to this day one of be...

Very much enjoyable, this.

'The Rocketeer' exceeded my expectations in truth, I wasn't expecting much given the opening few minutes. However, thankfully, it ends up producing an entertaining 108 minutes. Cool superhero, great score and a likeable cast list.

The premise is properly bonkers, especially towards the end, but they make it work and deserve credit for doing so. There are numerous recognisable faces onscreen, all of the main talent give good performances.

Billy Campbell plays the lead role, Cliff. I've (relatively) recently become aware of him via television's 'Cardinal' - which is outstanding btw, check it out if you can - and loved him in that, he's also very good in this. Jennifer Connelly (Jenny) and Alan Arkin (Peabod...

Billy Campbell was actually extremely believable in this and, honestly, I don't think that they could have found anyone better to play the evil Nazi Erroll Flynn styled actor than James Bond's Timothy Dalton.

But, also, I always kind of feel that Campbell has gotten the short end of the acting stick.

In all honesty, it's really a horribly fin superhero movie, right down to that amazing retro 1930s serial feel.

The entire thing was great and warranted far more fan fare than it received.

I hadn't seen this for over 15 years but as soon as the opening bars from James Horner's score hit my ears it all started to come back to me. This is a stylish adventure story that amalgamates lots of different themes from 1920s America - gangsters, aviation pioneering and a love story into a tale of good v evil and innovative science; we even have some Nazis! Bill Campbell is largely there for his looks, it has to be said - but as our daredevil hero "Cliff" he does inject some fun into the proceedings. He stumbles upon a rocket suit designed by Howard Hughes and decides to master it and put it to good use. Meantime, a comically menacing Timothy Dalton ("Neville Sinclair") is a British Hollywood actor who shamelessly rips off Errol Flynn mo...