 Hey guys, welcome back to Comic Gen TV. We're all geek culture collides. I'm Shannon and today I'm gonna be doing a retro review for the 1991 Disney film The Rocketeer, so stay tuned The Rocketeer was a film from 1991 Distributed and owned by Walt Disney Pictures and directed by Joe Johnston. The film was a period piece Just like the comic it was inspired by. The character of The Rocketeer was created by Dave Stevens I will be reviewing the comic which inspired the film in a later video But as for now, let's focus on one thing at a time. The film takes place in 1939 Los Angeles and stars Bill Campbell as Cliff Secord aka The Rocketeer Jennifer Connelly as Jenny Blake Secord's love interest Alan Arkin, you know the guy who played Tim Allen's father-in-law in the Santa Claus 3 as Peavey Timothy Dalton the ugly James Bond as Neville Sinclair the villain of the movie Terry O Quinn Yeah, John Locke from the series Lost as Howard Hughes You know the real guy that inspired Tony Stark in Marvel comics along with many others Including Margot Martindale, who's that? Well, have you seen Million Dollar Baby? She played Hilary Swank's white trash mother Grandma Ruby in the Hannah Montana movie and several other characters over the years I almost forgot we even had Paul Kent himself from Lois and Clark the new adventures of Superman Eddie Jones who played Malcolm the mechanic the first person saved by The Rocketeer Personally, I felt The Rocketeer was a great movie for the time The only real downside is that the entire film takes place in about 48 hour time frame The entire character of The Rocketeer was designed to be a pulp hero of the 30s even though he wasn't created until 1982 what The Rocketeer had the other pulp heroes didn't was simplicity Cliff is a simple man who was nothing more than to make enough money to settle down with his girlfriend Jenny He didn't set out to be a hero He only wanted to make enough money to replace the plane that was destroyed by criminals instead He catches newspaper headlines when he has to save his friend who was only trying to save Cliff's job The villain gets word of it and then we have Nazis and the mob attack Cliff and Jenny in order to obtain The Rocketeer pack It's not that Cliff aspired to be a hero It's not even that he wanted to be a hero Cliff simply wanted to settle down with his girl and fly plane It was the events that unfolded that made him into a hero In fact, he wasn't even a hero not until he removed the gum from the hole in the rocket pack and caused him Claire to explode He was simply a man in love trying to save his girl Simplicity is something that's missing from movies today Everything today has to have some kind of subplot and backstory and what made the hero who he is and what made the villain Who he is instead with this film we have Nazis who are obviously the villains We have the mob and the FBI which are the middle ground that both hero and villain try to outsmart and end up working with Both hero and villain at some point in the film and then we have the hero who isn't trying to save the world He's simply just trying to save his girl just like John McClane in the first die-hard film Cliff was in the wrong place at the wrong time and being the man He is set everything up to unravel as it did as an eight-year-old kid when this movie came out I loved it. It came out at a great time in my life in 1990. We received Dick Tracy star in Warren Beatty in 1994 the shadows starring Alec Baldwin in theaters and toy shelves in 1996 the Phantom starring Billy Zane debuted and at the same time as the shadow I was introduced to the Phantom with the Phantom 2040. It was a great time in my life Here I was at the onset and in the middle of the 90s a time that I remember fondly I had known who Superman Batman and Spider-Man were for many years But these were new old heroes that I was just learning about each story taking place in the 1930s Each story which spoke to me as a child first was a man who wasn't super by any means a man with massive Rogues gallery armed only with a talking watch and a machine gun Next came a reluctant hero who could fly by strapping a rocket to his back with a world's fair style art Deco helmet amazing then we had one-time villain who became a hero that could control people's minds and an Ageless vigilante who's lived for centuries each of these films may suffer from aging poorly But I will always hold them close to my heart because they taught me to look further than just Marvel and DC Because there's an infinite number of universes out there with an unlimited number of heroes Just waiting to be discovered or rediscovered for a new age That's why I chose the rocketeer the shadow and the Phantom to be a part of our logo here at Comic-En Because they are what inspired our channel to be what it is today Next I'll be reviewing the rocketeer volume one and the rocketeer adventures volume one Followed by a comparison video where we examine both the original comic book and the film the rocketeer So tune in then guys take care Hey guys if you liked this video make sure you smash that subscribe button and click on the little bell to receive Notifications on all our upcoming videos Hit the like button make sure and leave us a comment so we know how you felt about this video And don't forget to share with your family and friends until next time. I'm Shannon from Comic-En. We're all geek culture collides