THE Rock ★★★½
WHO doesn’t love The Rock.
The film I mean, not the actor…although plenty of people love him as well.
The 1996 action thriller, set on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, is one of three movies, the others being Bad Boys in ’95 and Armageddon in ’98, that launched the career of director/producer Michael Bay.
Apart from 2016’s 13 Hours, Bay has never bettered this run, concentrating instead on the five-film Transformers’ franchise which has been a constant money-earner but regularly mauled by critics.
Lead actor Nicolas Cage was also on a high having made the award-winning drama Leaving Las Vegas in 1995.
But, ever marching to his own beat, Cage chose to reinvent himself as an unlikely action star with The Rock followed by Con Air and Face/Off.
Talk about another great run.
The three films actually provide an interesting arc with his characters moving from reluctant nerd to moral soldier and finally a crazed criminal.
In The Rock he plays the wonderfully named Stanley Goodspeed, a specialist government chemist seconded by the Army to advise how to neutralise a nerve gas weapon.
The weaponised gas has been stolen by a renegade group of serving marines led by a decorated, four-star officer.
General Francis X. Hummel is angry at the government’s treatment of former marines involved in covert operations whose service and deaths are covered up and their families neglected.
Hummel wants financial recompense for the families but his rage has resulted in the takeover of the former island prison and threatened destruction of the nearby city.
While it could be argued that his motives are admirable, the same can’t be said for some of his men who are purely interested in the money.
The great Ed Harris delivers a convincing anti-villain and provides many stand-out moments from the sparse script.
The third alpha male is John Patrick Mason, played by Sean Connery, who is a former soldier who wound up in Alcatraz and became the only man to ever escape its treacherous confines.
After another spectacular, extended escape attempt, that destroys the city centre, Mason is forced to join Goodspeed and a group of marines charged with infiltrating the island.
It’s always great to see an old-school movie star like Connery chewing the scenery. He rarely makes films these days which is a shame. I’d love for him to have one more great dramatic role.
The Rock is great, discardable entertainment and mayhem with Connery and Cage playing off each other and a packed supporting cast including tough guys like David Morse, William Forsythe and Michael Biehn.
If testosterone was a fuel, The Rock would be an Apollo rocket.