The Rock (1996)

Director: Michael Bay
Starring: Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris

Synopsis:
A Marine general leads his men to steal lethal nerve gas and seize control of Alcatraz, holding the tourists hostage for ransom. An FBI chemical weapons specialist and an imprisoned SAS operative join a SEAL team incursion to retake the island and neutralize the threat.

Impressions:
I don't think you'll find anyone—at least not any action movie fan—who doesn't like The Rock. It's one of the best action films of the 90s and indeed, one of the best action films period. Sean Connery, Nic Cage and Ed Harris are all amazing. The score is playing in my head right now. (All due credit to Hans Zimmer and Nick Glennie-Smith.) How such an amazing film can come from a director as reviled as Michael Bay is a mystery. (Then again, I love Event Horizon, think the first Mortal Kombat movie was okay, but otherwise hate everything from Paul WS Anderson, so I guess everyone has a chance to get lucky.) I think it's a matter of how much Michael Bay is actually tasked with the workload. He has a pretty good sense for fast-paced action (though Heaven help you try to figure out what's going on in the bloody Transformers film with all those indistinct piles of junk smashing into each other), but I think more character-oriented stuff has to come from elsewhere. Something had to happen during the course of making the movie because I remember reading one of the early drafts of the script and it was rubbish, so it really is a mystery how we managed to get such a good final product. I could go on for quite a while, but I'm going to cut this short. Watch this movie and don't tell me it's not amazing, 'cause I'll take pleasure in guttin' you, boy. (You'll get it when you see the movie. I'm not just saying it because I'm a violence-for-pleasure-seeking psycopath. SHAME-ON-ME! ^o^ )

Rating:
Own It (or Sean Connery will shoot you)