The movie even Bay-haters like

Rating: 6/10 (7 April 2019)

Plot; A group of embittered Special Forces soldiers take control of Alcatraz prison and hold the city of San Francisco to ransom w/rockets filled w/a deadly nerve gas. W/few options and time ticking away, the government seeks the help of a former prisoner who once broke out of the infamous prison on a mission to retake it and stop the terrorists before it's too late.
Michael Bay. No director in Hollywood history has had more success making films that nearly everyone claims to hate. But Bay has one film on his resume that even his harshest critics admit to liking, if only as a guilty pleasure. 1996's The Rock. Starring a rounding third base Sean Connery and a freshly post-Oscar Nic Cage, it has nearly all of Bay's signatures, but like a bad steak smothered in A-1 sauce, they're easier to choke down here. A lot of the credit goes to the cast. Connery is still working at the apex of his star power while Cage is still a few years away from falling into self parody and brings his manic charms bear. The best performance, however, is from the always great Ed Harris as the sympathetic defacto villain of the piece.
The Rock isn't great cinema, and for my money it's not Bay's best or even most entertaining film, but it is a slick, lean and fun actioner that scratches a few different itches on a lazy Saturday afternoon.