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 Rocket Attack U.S.A. More at IMDbPro »

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9 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Buckle Up. This Is Going To Be A Rough Ride, 13 July 2008
1/10
Author: Clay Loomis from Arroyo Grande, California

OK, this isn't bad on the order of say, Monster A-Go-Go, but it is still one crappy movie. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957 and pretty much freaked out all of America. This little chunk of dreck is one of the results of that paranoia. Cheaply made, poorly acted, and beyond forgiveness in its depiction of the cold war, this is one huge pile of wasted film.

The background music is too loud, when it's there, and doesn't match what's going on on-screen. There is a mindless narrator that pipes up every now and then and only makes the story more confusing. Totally random characters are thrown in for no reason I could fathom. Example: An air raid siren blares and people are seen rushing toward underground shelters. A blind man wanders slowly into frame and quietly says "Help me", and that's the last we see of him.

Add in a couple reels of stock footage, some horrible accents, extremely annoying sound effects, and animation that wouldn't have cut it in the '30's and you get the idea. A waste of time on all levels.

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11 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
The cold war at its dullest, 15 January 2001
1/10
Author: NateW from California, USA

I never thought espionage and nuclear war could be so boring. Watching this movie would give you that impression. What was the deal with the blind guy? At least he didn't have to see this. Skip Rocket Attack USA unless you have the MST3K version.

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12 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Help me, 8 September 1999
1/10
Author: Jared G.

"If only money spent supporting cheese prices could have been spent on missle research"

This movie is a blatant propaganda piece that, for whatever reason, I get a serious kick out of. Don't get me wrong, the movie's terrible and the acting's wretched. But it's just so BAD! And the "we're right they're wrong" moralizing attitude makes me laugh out loud. Every Communist is portrayed as a boorish, war-mad, untrustworthy pig. And the narration is hilarious, especially in scenes where it "translates" what the Russians are saying.

The most interesting thing about the movie is that for the last 20 min. there seems to be no plot at all. I don't dare reveal the "horrifying" conclusion, but let's just say you'll be scratching your head a bit.

Watch for the scene where some generals stare at the nonexistent rocket.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Pre 9/11 paranoia., 23 October 2002
Author: madsagittarian from Toronto, Canada

In 1986, SNL alumni Laraine Newman starred in a 13-installment series called "Canned Film Festival", in which she and regular customers in a phony theater snackbar setting would talk about the bad movie that was playing in that night's schedule. What the writers failed to realize was that the irritating "comic relief" offered up by this stock pile of wannabes was nowhere nearly as funny as the films they showed... that took themselves seriously!

Cue ROCKET ATTACK USA. This typically lethargic Barry Mahon epic (remember CUBAN REBEL GIRLS?) is nonetheless a real scream. It is an outrageous piece of grimy slop. This is the kind of Grade Z espionage flick which heavily relies on stock footage, people reacting to offscreen cut-ins, and the principal cast "emoting" in front of those great nondescript black backgrounds. This is the kind of movie where a person gets mowed down by machine guns, and says, "You go ahead- I'm all right."

I haven't seen this film since, but I would love to have another look at it. However, in light of the atrocities of September 11, no-one would dare program it. After all, it does feature rockets attacking New York City. In today's climate, pictures like this and SHACK OUT ON 101, can no longer be viewed as hilariously outdated, naive pieces of Red Scare Propaganda. Suddenly, we understand how our ancestors felt back in the 1950's... being on the verge of disaster. Who knew that a Barry Mahon film would be topical?

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5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
It SUCKS!, 14 September 1999
1/10
Author: Sterno-2 from Frederick, MD

This is definitely the feel-good movie of the Cold War era. What more could you want? Plot contrivances by the boatload, one-dimensional characters, and unnecessary scenes clutter this otherwise noble film about military preparedness during the period when just as many people were scared of Charlie McCarthy as Joe McCarthy. What makes this film truly disappointing is the lack of authenticity on the film makers part. After all, who could honestly believe that you would have ONE Russian soldier guarding your precious ICBM that is aimed at New York City. Further, why would an American agent who can waltz right up to said ICBM, but yet have the slowest fuse on any bomb ever invented? *Sigh* I guess all movies can't be "Red Zone Cuba".

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Not the Worst Propaganda film i've Seen..., 25 May 2012
3/10
Author: nammage

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

...but it comes close. At least it isn't too long. There are some dragged out parts, mainly in the beginning when the "agent" meets the "spy", and they focused quite a bit of time on the belly-dancer. Though, compared to the whole of the film, that is worth a watch by itself. Much of it seems to be stock footage. The funny thing is is that if the U.S. successfully launched a satellite first, the world may have reacted with certain paranoia as the U.S. did. Perhaps not on the same scale. It seems, overall to be like one of those "after school" educational programs except this one filled in fear. As I stated: it isn't the worst out there. But it's close.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
So badddddd!!!!, 23 April 2012
Author: dcherson from United States

This movie must be the only terrible movie to be too terrible to be panned on MST3K (which it was...). Did any of these "actors" actually paid for this trash? This makes the 1951 Invasion USA look like academy award material. Who was Barry Mahon trying to kid? How about a worst movie of all time festival with this piece of you-know-what, Monster A-Go-Go, and Manos the Hands of Fate as the headliners? The production was the cheapest, the actors the worst, the plot was stupid and contrived, the so-called facts about the Soviet Union and sputnik weren't. How about all those "foreign" accents, eh? Well Mahon may have gotten the miniscule amount of spoken Russian right as they were spoken by two real Russians (noticed them in the credits).

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
So bad its good Red Menace film was probably over the top even in its day, 16 November 2009
7/10
Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Barry Mahon panic inducing tale about the commie threat of nuclear destruction in the wake of sputnik. Mahon 's tale has a secret agent going into the Soviet Union to get the goods on the Soviet rocket program. It's a cautionary tale about what could happen if we aren't vigilant.

It's a typical Mahon film, topical, more than a bit exploitive. It's a mix of documentary footage with narration that informs the viewer of the facts and a story with actors that tell the dramatic story. It's pure Red Menace about how we just can't trust those commies and how all they want is to destroy us with animated rockets. I was amused by its very dated out look on things. Then again the view of THEM as an enemy is always floating around, it's just that the names have changed. It is in its own way an entertaining over cook film that is mercifully short at 65 minutes. I recommend it to those who want to do a Red Menace night in the home theater or those who want to see how things used to be.

7 out of 10 is purely on the so bad/misguided its good scale

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Attempt at Plot Synopsis, 20 October 2008
2/10
Author: email2amh from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I can't disagree with the comments made by other contributors, so I will instead try to give you an outline of the plot.

First, there are sort of two movies here; the initial rocket espionage and then, the atomic readiness material at the end.

In the first story, and erstwhile American agent is sent to Russia after the Sputnik launch to find out if it was just a publicity stunt, and if not, what data & science could the Russians get from a satellite that orbited Earth and crossed the USA.

In Russia, he hooks up with an underground woman, posing as a belly dancer who has hooked up with a Russian rocket program minister. She allows the agent to live with her and spy on her sessions with the minister to get critical information.

Later, the girl heads for a final rocket test, then summons the agent - through, I think, a member of British intelligence. After some skullduggery and stock footage, the girl is shot by a soldier guarding the rocket, but manages to shoot him to save the agent. The agent gets caught attaching a bomb to the rocket, but escapes in a gun battle. The soldiers get the bomb off the rocket and it explodes safely (?) nearby. The American agent hears the explosion and thinks he has destroyed the rocket. He returns to the girl (now dead) and is, himself, strafed by machine fire and killed. END PART ONE.

In Part Two, we see some very short vignettes about a husband & wife discussing duty and air raids, Russian generals plotting, blue collar guys discussing buying a tie, and etc. Soon, the Russian ICBM is launched, America is on alert, sirens go off, and the radio announcer keeps us posted and eventually says goodbye to his wife & kid. It is determined that New York is the target, and Nike missiles are sent up to shoot down the ICBM, but to no avail.

During this part of the film, a single lower-ranking general has been manning a telephone (stenographer at his side), making all calls and decisions. Too late, he finally calls the president.

We see the ICBM up in space, then coming down, and finally mushrooming over Manhattan.

Final scene: "We can not let this be.......THE END".

A very weird little film, but unique!

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Film-making at its most abysmal, 22 August 2007
1/10
Author: bensonmum2 from Tennessee

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Rocket Attack U.S.A. is film-making at its most abysmal. There is absolutely nothing positive I can come up with to say about the movie. Both artistically and technically the movie is horrible. When you watch something this bad you at least hope to have a laugh or two along the way. Rocket Attack U.S.A. is so deathly dull that it's not even "so bad it's good". The movie seems to have been made as a propaganda piece in the wake of the successful launch of a Russian Sputnik satellite. But I cannot imagine this movie did anything to get the people behind a U.S. missile program.

I'm not sure how much anyone should expect from a no-budget movie with Barry Mahon as director. Take a look at some of his other directorial credits - The Adventures of Busty Brown (1964), Hot Skin, Cold Cash (1965), or Fanny Hill Meets Dr. Erotico (1967). Is there any real surprise that Rocket Attack U.S.A. is as bad as it is?

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