If you're going to San Fransisco, be sure to wear a Hazmat suit while you're there.

Rating: 7/10 (1 February 2012)

Having stolen missiles containing a lethal nerve gas, a disgruntled war hero and his team of mercenaries seize control of Alcatraz, where they threaten to launch the lethal rockets at San Fransisco unless the government agrees to pay compensation to the families of dead US soldiers. With the help of ex-Alcatraz prisoner John Mason (Sean Connery) and a team of Navy Seals, chemical weapons specialist Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) tries to prevent them from succeeding.
I've been having a bit of a nostalgia trip as of late, re-watching some classic action films of the 90s; sadly, my second-hand DVD of The Rock was scratched, meaning that the picture regularly froze or skipped. After viewing, I put the bloody thing in the bin—which is ironic, I guess, since it's one of the few Michael Bay films that doesn't really deserve such a fate.
Save for one frustratingly poor car chase scene between a Humvee and a Ferrari through the streets of San Francisco, during which Bay succumbs to his irritating habit of waving his camera around like a madman and cutting every two seconds, The Rock is a super-slick slice of big-budget gung-ho excess—extremely preposterous, highly explosive, and seriously over-dramatic popcorn entertainment, which its stars gamely play along with: Ed Harris shines as war hero turned terrorist Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel; Sean Connery plays Sean Connery (yet again); and Nicolas Cage acts like a lunatic as only he can.
There are, of course, better action flicks from the 90s—this is still a Michael Bay film, after all—but it's good enough that I could be tempted to stump up one more pound coin should I see another copy at my local car-boot sale. Providing it's the 2-disc edition and it's not scratched, that is...