The Rocketeer (1991)

Directed by Joe Johnston. Starring Bill Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin, Timothy Dalton, Paul Sorvino, Terry O’Quinn, Ed Lauter, James Handy, Eddie Jones, Jon Polito, Tiny Ron Taylor, Max Grodénchik, Margo Martindale, William Sanderson, John Lavachielli, America Martin, Melora Hardin. [PG]

The whiz-bang Saturday afternoon matinee spirit is alive and well in this engagingly innocent and pulpy throwback adventure set in 1930s Los Angeles. Campbell plays a handsome, ingenuous test pilot who comes upon an amazing contraption—a rocket-pack that allows him to shoot up into the clouds and zip around like a daredevil “hood ornament”—which he uses to evade and fight the evil-doers that want to get their hands on it, and even save the girl (his fetching lady love played by Connelly). The story may be thin, and Campbell’s clean-cut hero’s personality is even thinner, but it’s still an infectious, old-fashioned dynamo, with sharp Art Deco design, retro-stylish camerawork, and an exuberant musical score (courtesy of James Horner). Connelly is short on charisma, too, but she spends about half the movie in a low-cut white satin gown, so who cares? The supporting cast fares much better: Arkin’s breezily eccentric mechanic, Taylor’s hulking thug (who’s made up to look like a cross between Rondo Hatton and a Dick Tracy villain), and especially Dalton, who plays an Errol Flynn-esque swashbuckling actor who’s secretly a Nazi spy. There are also a few splendid walk-on impersonations of real-life actors like W. C. Fields and Clark Gable. Good clean fun captures some of that so-called “old movie magic,” and it’s a special treat for history and film buffs. Inspired by a 1980s comic book series.

83/100