Geoffrey DeLeons Another "family get-together" movie. Just what we needed, right? I couldn't determine if this movie had a point to make, because if it did, I never got it.Who is Levi? Why are we supposed to feel empathy for him? We know nothing about him other than that he was a writer, his work possibly having had political over-tones. Okay. Great. Is he really "dying"? No one seems to know, and if the doctor knows, he's not telling.The doctor comes to the house after Levi falls out of a hammock onto the lawn. The doctor expresses jealousy and anger for Levi marrying the then-deceased woman he was presently involved with, many years prior. Aha. That sews the story up nicely. That explains the strawberry blonde hottie and the depressed stand-up comic.A very odd scene occurs where Levi describes the Viking (sea raider) funeral to the kids, and they all jump up and say they want that kind of funeral. Come on. I was waiting for one to say, "Yes, grandpa. I'd love to be set adrift and burned into nothingness!"After the extremely embarrassing "pee in the ocean" scene, nothing could have been worse than.., wait for it...The kids pretending to be in a rock band and we are forced to watch them play air guitar to a P.A. system that they set up? Rented? Concealed? I turned the movie off at that point.The strawberry blonde hottie should have jumped Levi's (her father's) bones one day (possibly in the very same hammock), and gave him the long-awaited heart attack, and then taken boughs in front of the rest of the family: At least that would have been funny.I gave Rocket Gibraltar six stars, anyway. I didn't hate it. It's just that I think everyone has a story to tell, and the movie would not allow Levi to tell his.

mark.waltz Grand-daddy's dyin', and who's got the boat? He's the legendary Burt Lancaster, a grizzled widower who invites his brood and their many grandchildren for one seeming last summer fling at his ocean front cottage. The adults do nothing but argue and coddle the father, while the children (which includes Macauley Culkin) plan a surprise for their granddaddy's upcoming birthday. The middle generation of this family (which includes Patricia Clarkson, John Glover and Kevin Spacey) are selfish and too involved in their own cold lives to really see what's going on around them, and when Lanchaster tells his grandchildren of his dream of a Viking's funeral, they take an abandoned boat and prepare the best birthday present a grizzled old man could want, other than maybe a visit down memory lane with a VHS tape of Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth in "You Were Never Lovelier". Formulatic family drama with more than a touch of "On Golden Pond" thrown in, "Rocket Gibralter" seemed so much better when I first saw it in the movie theatre, and while still enjoyable, I found it rather one dimensional for the middle generation, none of whom I really could identify with or even like. The film tends to move slowly at times, but when Lanchaster sits with his grandchildren spinning stories with them, particularly the adorable Culkin, it glows. It also has amazingly beautiful sunsets to look at and a haunting musical score as well. The ending, while sometimes unbelievable, is very touching, and if you are a first time viewer of this film, you may want to keep a few hankies with you. I know on my first viewing of this 25 years ago, I was very angry at myself that I didn't have them, because I desperately needed them.

BrianPatrix This movie invoked in me a funny kind of feeling. What feeling exactly, or why I don't know, but it was with a definite contentment that I watched it. Just go and rent it, you'll see. Maybe it was the time that I watched it, Sunday afternoon, or the fact that I felt good for other reasons, but the interaction between Lancaster and Culkin is so nice and touching ('cuse the sappy language) that it makes you feel good with the world. The movie just has the right atmosphere and incomparable good acting by Culkin (8 years at the time) especially.I don't want to go into the story line or that kind of crap, just go and see it.

JerryP-2 I'm told that this was Burt Lancaster's last film. I happen to like his acting, but the script for this effort could have been better. There are the adults, who are rather shallow caricatures of real people with problems. The kids who play grandpa's grandchildren, however, make the best part of this opus. I could almost see myself in their places so many years ago. Of course, my siblings and I wouldn't have done some of the things these grandkids end up doing. The last 10 minutes of the film make up for some rather boring parts spent on the adult characters.