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.

| Jun 21, 2018

In the quarter-century since its release, as the superhero blockbuster has become a cornerstone of mainstream moviemaking, it's become clear that 'The Rocketeer' is a model of the form - breathless, energetic, and endlessly entertaining.

| Jun 24, 2016

Almost never takes thrilling flight.

| Original Score: C | Jun 1, 2011

A piece of blandly enthusiastic, B-movie pulp.

| Original Score: C | Jul 6, 2010

This $40 million adventure fantasy puts a shiny polish on familiar elements: airborne hero, damsel in distress, Nazi villains, 1930s Hollywood glamor, and dazzling special effects.

| Apr 18, 2007

The whole thing is good-natured enough, but increasingly mechanical.

| Apr 18, 2007

Neat idea, peachy visuals, but there ain't much else to grip the imagination.

| Jun 24, 2006

Truer to the old school Saturday matinee spirit than any modern film this side of Indiana Jones

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 10, 2005

Plenty of energy has gone into making this a bustling, visually clever film with an amusing late-1930's stylishness, but the purpose of such effort is uncertain.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 30, 2004

The film is awash in all kinds of surprises that are too juicy to reveal.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 12, 2001

Based on a comic book, deliciously corny but not campy, "The Rocketeer" is the movie Dick Tracy and Batman wanted to be.

| Jan 1, 2000

You have to dial down, to return to an age of innocence when an eccentric inventor and a clear-eyed hero could take on the bad guys with a new gizmo they'd dreamed up overnight.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Such an idealized time never really existed, to be sure, but once in a while it's nice to think it might have.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Reaches for the skies but runs out of fuel.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 1, 2000

It's a humble little item, actually, easily digested and easily forgotten.

| Jan 1, 2000