The film is just a very safe shot into the skies that undoubtedly will knock down an avalanche of mainstream money and clean up in the outer dimension of video it's a veritable flying Katzenberg Memo.
More akin in its cautious execution to ''Harry and the Hendersons'' than to ''Star Wars, '' ''Indiana Jones'' and other biggies in a quality quantum orbit above, ''The Rocketeer'' is low-octane Steven Spielberg -- projected in the right happy direction but lacking the gritty accelerant and around-the-edges humor and humanity of other heavy popcorn-load adventures.
As seems characteristic with projects with multiple writers (two screenwriters, three story people), ''Rocketeer's'' story is so smoothed-out and so slavishly servile to all the proven story components. that one suspects that if all the MBAs and all the marketing committees in the universe had convened to program a script, this would be the result
While ''Rocketeer'' lacks zing and zip as narrative, director Joe Johnston makes it soar in its action sequences, especially when the film's focal component, a goofy little backstrap rocket, blazes across the screen with the crazy turns of a supersonic squirrel. Also charging the enterprise to high dimension is composer James Horner's torrential, full-horned score.
In this comic cartoon-based blast, Bill Campbell stars as Cliff, an average schmo (well, not so average -- he races planes) who must rise to the occasion to savccasion to save the free world. A high-tech, person-propelling rocket has come into Cliff's possession, and hot re gangsters, Nazis and a Hollywood star (Timothy Dalton). All the while, he's having tender trouble with his silken actress girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly).
Unfortunately, ''Rocketeer's'' chief component, the rocket itself, is wasted throughout much of the script as a MacGuffin, a mere object that everyone chases after. Despite a few action sequences where Cliff straps it on and soars heroic, the rocket itself might as well have been a golden donut, so under-utilized is the winning contraption to stimulate action scenes.
Indeed, much of the narrative thrust is wasted on linking the ponderous ballast of the back stories, while the overall climax is deadened by expository clean-up.
Undeniably, ''Rocketeer's'' overall trajectory is pleasing and winning, but it lacks the quirky charms and personal idiosyncracies that endeared other big-effects films to tot and sophisticate alike. In the annals of blandness, ''Rocketeer's'' lead character Cliff wins the white bread prize hands down, so nondescript is Bill Campbell's lead performance.
Even the hyperkinetic talents of Alan Arkin have been scraped off to such a greeting card degree that one concludes the players are not to be blamed for the lackluster, overly sanitized performances.
With its elegant 1930s sets and skilled special effects, ''The Rocketeer's'' technical contributors perform in full-thrust throttle: helmets off to production designer Jim Bissell for the scrumptious Busby Berkely-styled sets and Industrial Light & Magic for its characteristic above-and-beyond pyrotechnics.
THE ROCKETEER
Buena Vista
Walt Disney Presents
A Gordon Company Production
A Joe Johnston Film
Produced in association with
Silver Screen Partners IV
Producers Lawrence Gordon, Charles Gordon,
Lloyd Levin
Director Joe Johnston
Screenwriters Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo
Story Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo, William Dear
Based on the novel ''The Rocketeer'' created byDave Stevens
Executive producer Larry Franco
Director of photography Hiro Narita
Production designer Jim Bissell
Music James Horner
Editor Arthur Schmidt
Special visual effects Industrial Light & Magic
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Cliff Secord Bill Campbell
Jenny Blake Jennifer Connelly
Peevy Alan Arkin
Neville Sinclair Timothy Dalton
Eddie Valentine Paul Sorvino
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
More akin in its cautious execution to ''Harry and the Hendersons'' than to ''Star Wars, '' ''Indiana Jones'' and other biggies in a quality quantum orbit above, ''The Rocketeer'' is low-octane Steven Spielberg -- projected in the right happy direction but lacking the gritty accelerant and around-the-edges humor and humanity of other heavy popcorn-load adventures.
As seems characteristic with projects with multiple writers (two screenwriters, three story people), ''Rocketeer's'' story is so smoothed-out and so slavishly servile to all the proven story components. that one suspects that if all the MBAs and all the marketing committees in the universe had convened to program a script, this would be the result
While ''Rocketeer'' lacks zing and zip as narrative, director Joe Johnston makes it soar in its action sequences, especially when the film's focal component, a goofy little backstrap rocket, blazes across the screen with the crazy turns of a supersonic squirrel. Also charging the enterprise to high dimension is composer James Horner's torrential, full-horned score.
In this comic cartoon-based blast, Bill Campbell stars as Cliff, an average schmo (well, not so average -- he races planes) who must rise to the occasion to savccasion to save the free world. A high-tech, person-propelling rocket has come into Cliff's possession, and hot re gangsters, Nazis and a Hollywood star (Timothy Dalton). All the while, he's having tender trouble with his silken actress girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly).
Unfortunately, ''Rocketeer's'' chief component, the rocket itself, is wasted throughout much of the script as a MacGuffin, a mere object that everyone chases after. Despite a few action sequences where Cliff straps it on and soars heroic, the rocket itself might as well have been a golden donut, so under-utilized is the winning contraption to stimulate action scenes.
Indeed, much of the narrative thrust is wasted on linking the ponderous ballast of the back stories, while the overall climax is deadened by expository clean-up.
Undeniably, ''Rocketeer's'' overall trajectory is pleasing and winning, but it lacks the quirky charms and personal idiosyncracies that endeared other big-effects films to tot and sophisticate alike. In the annals of blandness, ''Rocketeer's'' lead character Cliff wins the white bread prize hands down, so nondescript is Bill Campbell's lead performance.
Even the hyperkinetic talents of Alan Arkin have been scraped off to such a greeting card degree that one concludes the players are not to be blamed for the lackluster, overly sanitized performances.
With its elegant 1930s sets and skilled special effects, ''The Rocketeer's'' technical contributors perform in full-thrust throttle: helmets off to production designer Jim Bissell for the scrumptious Busby Berkely-styled sets and Industrial Light & Magic for its characteristic above-and-beyond pyrotechnics.
THE ROCKETEER
Buena Vista
Walt Disney Presents
A Gordon Company Production
A Joe Johnston Film
Produced in association with
Silver Screen Partners IV
Producers Lawrence Gordon, Charles Gordon,
Lloyd Levin
Director Joe Johnston
Screenwriters Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo
Story Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo, William Dear
Based on the novel ''The Rocketeer'' created byDave Stevens
Executive producer Larry Franco
Director of photography Hiro Narita
Production designer Jim Bissell
Music James Horner
Editor Arthur Schmidt
Special visual effects Industrial Light & Magic
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Cliff Secord Bill Campbell
Jenny Blake Jennifer Connelly
Peevy Alan Arkin
Neville Sinclair Timothy Dalton
Eddie Valentine Paul Sorvino
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 6/10/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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