The Rocketeer | Full Movie | Movies Anywhere

The movie's sustained by its visual flourishes and by wit bordering on the wicked.

There are plenty of Indiana-style thrills and the aerial stunts are impressive. But the plot doesn't rip-roar along quite as fast as in the Indy films and there's no whip-crackling dialogue to fill the lulls between the excitement.

It has just enough spectacle and derring-do to stir up your kid side and the bare minimum of wit required to keep the rest of the ol' bean engaged. But mainly, the thing just looks cool.

What the film needs is wit and that is what, and barely in time, Timothy Dalton supplies... He makes the rest of "Rocketeer's" perfect squareness palatable, and make it possible for us to relate to its gee-whiz allure.

Why isn't "The Rocketeer" more fun? Why isn't there more satire, more laughs? Why does so much of it seem slow going?