The Rocketeer

This post is unusual because it is a movie that my boyfriend recently forced me to watch.
It's not to say I didn't like it or didn't vaguely remember it from 1991 but I was in the mood for horror movies. We were contemplating a very belated Halloween themed movie marathon over the past weekend and I had picked up Triangle, Carrie (of course I have seen before but boyfriend hasn't) and some random movie whose name eludes me.

Triangle was weird but okay, we still haven't watched Carrie or the other one and he picks up Rocketeer quite excited remembering watching it when he was younger. I grunted an okay (I'm a film Nazi, he always seems to pick these B grade things which admittedly can be amusing) and a lackluster viewing ensued!

Seriously though, released in 1991 and starring Bill Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin, Timothy Dalton, and Paul Sorvino it really is quite a talented line up.

Set in the 1930s Campbell plays young pilot Cliff Secord who stumbles upon a prototype of a rocket pack in his wrecked plane, (pack designed by Howard Hughes no less) which had been stolen by gangstas led by Sorvino's character, Eddie Valentine. He in turn is working for Dalton's character, Neville Sinclair, a big shot Hollywood actor. Cliff tells no one he finds it, thinking he can make money from it now that his plane is wrecked. He ends up flying the jet pack when he goes to rescue another pilot who hasn't flown in a long time at an air show and ends up being on the front page of newspapers and talk of the town as the mysterious 'rocketeer'.

But now the FBI are after the rocketeer thinking he stole the prototype as well as the gangstas working for Neville.

Connelly plays Jenny, Cliff's girlfriend (an actress with a small part in Neville's movie) who gets caught up in the mess when Neville finds out her boyfriend is the one who found the rocket pack.

Arkin is Peevee, Cliff's mentor and mechanic who helps him work out some of the kinks in the rocket pack's design and creates the weird looking helmet.

This movie is fairly enjoyable, whilst having an at times corny script. Cliff rescues the girl as well as saves America from the Nazis (well it is based on a comic book).
The kiss at the end is fairly obvious but very Disney I suppose, last lines below:

Cliff Secord: What was that line again? Oh my prince...

Jenny: ...would that you drink of my lips...
Cliff Secord: Thanks, I don't mind if I do.

The deaths of the 'bad guys' are predictably awful but in a no blood and guts way. It's all very pro America:

[siding with the FBI to fight the Nazis]
Eddie Valentine: I may not make an honest buck, but I'm 100% American...

Get lost in his dreaminess

I know gangstas aren't the most scrupulous of characters, but wouldn't they be wondering why Neville wants a rocket pack?

Turns out he's a Nazi spy, and it turns gangstas are actually very patriotic and will stand up against a Nazi spy even if they are tripling their pay.