Today’s quick review: The Rock. When General Francis Hummel (Ed Harris) and an elite team of soldiers take over the island of Alcatraz and threaten to bombard San Francisco with stolen chemical weapons, the FBI sends in Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage), a high-strung chemical specialist, to defuse the situation. His guide for the mission is John Mason (Sean Connery), a former SAS soldier in federal custody and the only man to ever escape Alcatraz.
The Rock is an action thriller from director Michael Bay. The Rock delivers Michael Bay’s signature style of high-octane action. The stunts are grand in scope, the drama is gratuitous, and the whole package is wrapped up in straight-faced delivery that still manages to be fun. The plot follows Stanley Goodspeed, an FBI lab tech, on his first field mission: to infiltrate one of the most secure prisons on Earth, with the lives of an entire city at stake.
The Rock obeys one simple rule: when in doubt, go big. The stunts go above and beyond what’s necessary and into the realm of pure spectacle. The film milks its dramatic twists for all they’re worth. Even the characters are extreme: Hummel is the epitome of misguided honor, Goodspeed is as brilliant as he is inexperienced, and Mason is a living legend imprisoned by the American government because of what he knows and what he can do.
The result is a polished action movie that delivers exactly what it promises. Fans of the action genre will enjoy The Rock for its high tension, its clean execution, and its pure motives. Skip it if you’re looking for grit, realism, or an 80s-style action hero. For another action thriller with a similar plot, check out Die Hard. For sci-fi action with a similar flavor, check out Armageddon or Independence Day.
7.4 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 to 7.5 for having everything an action movie needs.