The Rocketeer: 20th Anniversary Edition (1991)

Based on Dave Stevens' graphic novel (which was inspired by "King of the Rocketmen" a movie serial from the 40's), this retro fantasy is a blast (pardon the pun). Unfortunately, the DVD transfer is not so hot. Director Joe Johnston ("October Sky", "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" and "Jurassic Park III")does a nice job with this feature film recreating the look of Hollywood in 1938.

BLU-RAY REVIEW:

Disney has given us a very nice looking Blu-ray debut for "The Rocketeer. Although the image is occasionally a bit soft the overall detail, depth and colors are far superior to every previous edition of the movie. The film looks exceptionally good for a film that is 20 years old.

We get a nice 5.1 lossless mix--it won't blow you away the way that, say, "Transformers: The Dark Side of the Moon" audio might, but it's immersive and sounds extremely good with crisp, clear dialogue.

Special Features: Someone missed the boat at the Mouse house here--we get the theatrial trailer and really nothing else of worth. That's just wrong since there's A LOT of material out there on the making of teh film.

4 stars for the transfer which looks extremely good and 1/s star for the "special Feature".

Cliff Secord (Bill Campbell) and "Peevy" (Alan Arkin) have put together a cutting edge stunt plane. During a test flight the plane is destroyed in an accident involving the FBI and the Mob. It seems the Mob has stolen a revolutionary rocket packet designed by Howard Hughes (the great Terry O'Quinn)which the U.S. wants to use for military purposes. Unfortunately, so do the Nazi's who hired Mob kingpin Eddie Valentine (Paul Sorvino) to steal it. Secord accidently comes into possession of the rocket pack and suddenly everyone from Hollywood actor/Nazi agent Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton) to the FBI want to catch him and retrieve it.

ORIGINAL DVD REVIEW:

This is a fun witty film of the graphic novel. The DVD transfer looks so-so. The image is frequently too dark and there's lots of digital artifacts (aliasing, etc.) that mar the picture. Presented in widescreen, it's not enhanced for 16x9 sets and doesn't appear to be an anamorphic transfer either. Why does all that matter? Because on a widescreen TV it would have enhanced and improved the picture quality making it look sharp, vivid and alive. The original theatrical trailer is the only extra. I don't know if Disney has any immediate plans to reissue this but if you do purchase it, be aware that it doesn't look all that great on DVD because of the transfer by Disney.

I'm hoping that Disney will be reissuing this terrific movie because it certainly deserved it. Unfortunately, the film with its loopy charm and srong performances didn't get the audience it deserved and died at the box office. Disney, get off your duff and reissue this as a two DVD Special Edition as it deserves!

The Rocketeer is one of the most enjoyable action-adventure movies ever made. Everything about this film is wonderful. Director Joe Johnson perfectly captures the look and feel of Hollywood (or what Hollywood should look and feel like) during the 1930s. Great casting with Bill Campbell right on target at Cliff Secord, Jennifer Connelly as his best girl, Jenny Blake, Alan Arkin as Cliff's mentor and mechanic/inventor friend, and Timothy Dalton as the evil Nazi spy-movie star Neville Sinclair. Like Raiders of the Lost Ark, it is a homage to the film serials of the period, but with a lot more spit and polish. The special effects are great, the set decoration, costumes, makeup, all evoke the time and place perfectly. A wonderful script adapted from the graphic novel of the same name sets this movie apart from others in this genre. The dialogue is funny, fast and at sometimes furious. Campbell plays the All-American boy with a real gee whiz, almost Jimmy Stewart kind of charm. The plot about a secret plan by the Nazis to build rocket packs for an army of "Rocketeers" to take over the world is added and abetted by Dalton as the Errol Flynn-like movie star. When a prototype rocket pack accidentally ends up in the hands of Campbell and Arkin, the action, and their troubles, really start. This film is filled with dozens of wonderful characterizations. Some of the best are Paul Sorvino as gangster Eddie Valentine, Terry O'Quinn as Howard Hughes, and Tiny Ron as Lothar. The musical score by James Horner is outstanding. It's heroic, quiet and inspiring. Why this film didn't turn out to be the big blockbuster it should have been is beyond me. I love Raiders of the Lost Ark, but this film matches it in almost every category. One of my favorite modern films, I never tire of watching it. Perfect entertainment and perfect for all ages. The Rocketeer is a real winner.

Buy The Rocketeer: 20th Anniversary Edition (1991) Now

This movie is clearly a five star film. It's exciting, fun, adventurous and great for kids, but also for adults! The photography is great, sets and costumes are authentic, and the acting is first rate. HOWEVER, this has got to be the worst DVD transfer I have ever seen. It looks to me like they took a widescreen 72 mm print and projected it on a screen, then rephotographed it on 35 mm... no kidding. Nearly every letterbox film I have goes from one side of my flat panel monitor to the other. This one is well within all 4 sides of my monitor... and the color is milky and faded and there is a grainy character to the picture. The sound is clearly stereophonic and wonderful... so why Disney can put out an amateur transfer like this is beyond me. Having said that, the film is not expensive and I still recommend it.... but Disney needs to re-release a clear transfer of this wonderful film. I will be worried about the quality of future Disney and Miramax films on DVD if this is how they are going to be released.

Read Best Reviews of The Rocketeer: 20th Anniversary Edition (1991) Here

Somehow as a kid I missed watching this film, but I amended this oversight during college by acquiring the standard DVD edition of the film. "The Rocketeer" blew me away, not due to intensity of action or spectacle, but instead by a quality increasingly rare in our blockbusters... its heart. The film undeniably wears its earnestness on its sleeve, but the result is far from cheesy, manifesting into an atmosphere of excitement and wonder that hearkens back to Hollywood's Golden Age and the old 1930s serials. Aside from the better Indiana Jones films, "Rocketeer" is probably the best homage you can find to that style of storytelling. Not that the film is perfect -far from it -but "Rocketeer" uncannily manages to turn many of its flaws in its favor. They add to the charm, as does James Horner's rousing score, which ranks easily among his very best.

Yet "The Rocketeer" has never been the unqualified success it deserves to be, having had the misfortune of opening against a little indie film you may have heard of called "Terminator 2." It was unceremoniously dumped on VHS and then the aforementioned DVD -a barebones disc with a non-anamorphic, smeary mess of a transfer that, on today's HD televisions, is damn near unwatchable.

Enter this "20th Anniversary Edition" Blu-ray. Video is pretty good for a film of its budget, production methods, and vintage; not reference quality, but certainly a vast, VAST improvement on the wretched DVD. Audio is slightly disappointing with a distinct lack of LFE in the sound effects, but James Horner's score sounds wonderful.

Most disappointing is the almost complete lack of bonus material. The menu is stylish and the disc even uses BD-Java, but the only available extra outside the film is a standard-definition trailer. For a release billed as a "20th Anniversary Edition," this defies logic. Surely a retrospective featurette is called for at the very least? According to The Digital Bits, cameras were present at a 20th Anniversary screening at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood that included a Q&A with the filmmakers, so I suppose it is possible that they are saving features for a future release, but given this title's treatment in the past another, later release on Blu-ray seems unlikely.

In summary, five stars for the movie, four stars for the video, three stars for the audio, and no stars for the extras. Why, then, is the overall rating for this review five stars? Because, with today's equipment, all previous video releases of the film are unwatchable, and the quality of the upgrade from DVD to Blu-ray is easily worth five stars, especially considering the quality of the movie, and frankly we are lucky to have this Blu-ray at all considering the film's reputation as a box-office flop and as something of a stepchild for Disney. Considering that a future, feature-laden Blu-ray upgrade is highly improbable, this "20th Anniversary Edition" is highly recommended.

Want The Rocketeer: 20th Anniversary Edition (1991) Discount?

For those of you who don't know about this movie, read the other posts here. What I'm going to talk about is the poor video quality of this release.

To start, the framing has been noticably cropped from its original 2.35:1 Panavision scope aspect ratio. If you are familiar with the original widescreen/letterbox laserdisc that Disney released, you'll find that this DVD sports the exact same composite video transfer with all of its inherent problems intact. No new high definition master was created for this release.

The only thing of merrit is that the ORIGINAL 5.1 surround track was used to encode it to Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. Yup, the packaging is in error. You're in for a treat as the split surround channels are pretty darn active considering it was mixed in the early days of 5.1 digital surround equipped cinemas.

Hopefully, Disney will re-do this DVD in the near future. They created a fresh transfer for The Santa Clause SE, so why not the superior The Rocketeer??

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