Richard Chatten Despite the constant stress by The General on the fate of the world depending on a desperate race against the clock, director Barry Mahon never manages to instill any sense of urgency into 'Rocket Attack U.S.A.', since the need to pad out to feature length a script already over-burdened with long dialogue scenes set in offices means that nothing is ever done quickly and the action is padded out with digressions like an interminable belly dance in a Moscow nightclub. SPOILER COMING: Then suddenly two of the main characters are abruptly killed off, and as in 'Dr. Strangelove' and 'Fail-Safe' the worst happens.The stock footage that makes up much of the film is interesting to watch, and it manages to anticipate the Cuban missile crisis by four years (it carries a 1958 copyright date), as well as the leadership coups staged by hard-liners in the Kremlin that unseated Khrushchev (who is never mentioned in the film by name) in 1964 and Gorbachev in 1991, but is unfortunately so dull that you're unlikely to still be paying attention when after dragging its heels for the previous sixty minutes it all abruptly ends with a bang.

Aaron1375 I saw this film on MST3K, which is going to probably be the only way to find some enjoyment out of a U.S. propaganda movie from the old Cold War days. I am rather sure that even if you lived during that time though you would find little enjoyment out of this film which basically uses scare tactics to ramp up the Soviet threat to the United States. Throw in a pointless spy who infiltrates Russia and a couple of other padding devices and you still barely have enough present to call it a movie.The story has the Russians launching Sputnik and the U.S. in a panic! The United States sends in a top spy to infiltrate Russia and try to find out just how close they are to launching an attack on the United States. He falls in love with his contact in what amounts to a pointless padding plot point and fails miserably in destroying the Russian missile as he is a bit too worried about his own safety...should of made that thing go off sooner you idiot. We go back to the U.S. for a couple of really pointless plot points before the missile attack is imminent!It made for a good MST3K episode in spots; however, it was not one of the funnier episodes. It had moments where the film lagged a bit too much and there was just not enough fodder for the guys to jump on. The acting was stale and the plot slow so it did not have a lot going on which does not help the guys' riffing. It is not a bad episode either as there are area where they are giving enough material to shine!So this film is not really all that good...it is serious to the point of being droll and annoying. It is not like you cannot have fun with the subject, look at Stanly Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. It goes by at a snail's pace and the only way this film seems to be even watchable is with the MST3K gang. If they wanted to make a propaganda piece ditch most of the plot and just show New York getting hit, as generating fear is what this thing was all about. Instead they generated boredom which probably put everyone to sleep before the bomb even hit...

Lee Battersby Holy hell, this just might be the most tedious movie ever made. Stunningly wooden performances, incomprehensible logic, a hero so incompetent he manages to get himself and the alleged love interest gunned down in the act of failing to attach a bomb that Wile E Coyote would sneer at to the one rocket the cardboard Russians manage to build.... the whole thing topped off with a portentous voice-over that constantly intrudes to tell us what the characters are doing, as they're in the midst of doing it.... all to tell us the story of how the Russians were secretly building a brand new terror-weapon that the Germans had successfully built and used a decade previously.You know a movie's bad when even the MST3K crew struggle to make enough fun of it. When they actively complain about how bored *they* are, it's a World Champion Stinker.

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.