Rocket Hunter

Found this movie at Walmart for cheap and decided to give it a chance. Bad idea. First, the box cover; the image on the back of the DVD case is a Bf-108, a period-accurate trainer, though clearly not an Bf-109 fighter. Not only that, the image of Bf-108 has tracer fire emerging from underneath the fuselage from weapons that don't exist in the image. The biggest laugh came with two of the other aircraft in the same image, one is an American AT-6 trainer dressed as a Japanese Zero fighter. The other aircraft is clearly a Japanese B5N 'Kate' torpedo-bomber with a torpedo slung underneath. Keep in mind, this is suppose to be January 1945, Germany we're in!

The movie itself;

I could only watch ten minutes of it before turning it off. The production value is poor. The aircraft on screen are radio-controlled aircraft kept at a distance. The acting is stilted. Line deliveries are poor with no real attempt at accents. What frustrated me was the set design. It was clearly done on the cheap. The 'cockpit of the B-17' is just a black cutout. If you look behind the pilots, you can see where the facade ends.

From what I understand of the story, the Germans are moving a train loaded with materiel for their rocket-powered Komet and jet-powered Me-262 facilities. Intel has intercepted where the train is going to be at a point in time and want the train destroyed with precision bombing. So they send a lumbering B-17 bomber with just two crew-members, only one is an actual pilot, a fighter pilot in a P-38 squadron. The other is his brother, a trail gunner in another bomber squadron. And both decide to go on this mission together because-reasons. Why not send P-38s or other fighter-bombers to go after this target? Well, the squadron is out on another mission.

Then ask another fighter-squadron if they can do it! Why send a single B-17 into Germany with no fighter support and only two crew members? This may be January 1945, but Germany is still putting up fierce resistance.

That's where I ended it. I couldn't go any further. If they're not going to put forth the effort, why should I?

As a War Film, it is painful to watch.A flying B-17 with the sound track of a Cessna? All flying scenes appear to be those of a first time RC operator. Major continuity problems when two man B-17 crew bail out and unexplainedly shows up in Britain. German Train Engineer has a radio and talks in English with B-17 Crew? A better Title might have been. "It Gets Worse". The Script is hard to follow until you accept the pointlessness of trying.

Some movies are so bad that you actually enjoy them, laughing at the silliness, preferably with some alcohol involved, and friends.

This isn't one of them.

It's more of an insult. The wooden dialogues, the cardboard settings (did I actually see some of the 'actors' glancing sideways to read their lines??).

The "special effects", well let's not go there.

If my 12 year old cousin (I don't have one, but bear with me) would present me with this film, I would be very impressed. And I would wish him well in his future as a potential director/screen writer.

But this actually got made and released, and that's quite an insult to the year 2020. And to movie viewers.

A dreadful production. I've seen better work from middle school students.

This movie would be considered cruel and unusual punishment if anyone was ever forced to watch it.

The actors are so bad I can only assumed they paid to be in the film. It was like a fourth grader reading cue cards, confused by the cameras. The story-line was incredibly basic yet at the same time so troubling to try in follow. Like a Make-a-Wish kid just wanted to see his cruel crayon drawing come to life. I believe all the special effects were also handled by this child.

Beyond everything else that stood out, the camera angles really sealed the deal. It was like they could only film one angle at a time, so they filled each actor at a time, then tried to splice the film back together. It has some of the most un-organic dialog to ever be featured in a movie.

The fact that they sell this movie for nearly ten dollars is unbelievable.