The Rocketeer

The Rocketeer is a gung-ho all-American summer flick with the guts not to try and be anything else.

The Rocketeer may not be perfect, but it's an excellent example of how to adapt a comic book to the screen.

Newcomer Campbell exhibits the requisite grit and all-American know-how, but the lead role is written with virtually no humor or subtext. Those around him come off to better advantage, notably Dalton as the deliciously smooth, insidious Sinclair; Sorvino and Alan Arkin, with the latter as the Rocketeer’s mentor; Terry O’Quinn as Hughes; and the lovely, voluptuous Connelly.

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.

A benign adventure saga that has attractive stars, elaborate gimmicks and nice production values -- everything it needs except a personality of its own.

A movie that looks nice and moves along efficiently, but offers little reason for anyone to watch.

Take an uncharismatic leading man (Bill Campbell), an obviously pre-Oscar Jennifer Connelly, a scene-chewing Timothy Dalton and action that doesn't start until halfway through the film and what you have is one of 1991's more disappointing summer flicks.

Very slow start with a good plot but could and should have been better .

Cheery, family-friendly adventures in the vein of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Set during the waning years of the Great Depression, The Rocketeer provides a snapshot of a very specific period when America was just beginning to pick itself up by the bootstraps. The atomic age was looming and, in this fearless era, not even the sky was the limit. At heart, this is a silly, grinning action gimmick that's backed by a tried-and-true story and a stylish, art-deco-meets-dusty-barnstormer sense of fashion. Although the plot is inherently cheesy and predictable, it's straight-laced and innocent enough, a clear homage to '30s adventure serials, that I was willing to let most of the shortcomings slide. The special effects haven't aged well at all, though, with several obvious green screens and a few rough, quick cuts sticking out in all the wrong ways. Timothy Dalton is disappointing as the pencil-mustached villainous saboteur, but Jennifer Connelly and leading man Bill Campbell fully commit to the premise, picking up some of that slack. Inoffensive and silly, it's as good as it was ever going to be; a wild kids' ride that the parents won't mind tagging along for.