Probably Michael Bay's best movie

Rating: 7/10 (20 October 2018)

These days, Michael Bay's name is synonymous with big budget action movies that are long on explosions and short on story. While that isn't an entirely fair characterization of his directorial output, it does ring true to a certain degree. "The Rock" was just his second feature film and, looking back, it's arguably his best.
The story concerns an imminent chemical weapons attack on San Francisco by a rogue group of military personnel. The bad guys are holed up on Alcatraz with a group of tourists held hostage. The government has hatched a scheme to break in to Alcatraz with the aid of a British spy who has been jailed for 30 years. You see, this man has quite a distinction: He's the only man to successfully break out of Alcatraz. Naturally, he can't do it on his own, so a group of Navy Seals accompanies him along with an expert on chemical weapons.
The high concept plot is a step in the right direction since the movie has a decent hook to separate it from countless other action movies. What's more, the movie's villains are even treated somewhat sympathetically, which is a welcome surprise. Sure, the movie may get a bit silly and/or unbelievable at times but the core plot is an interesting one that certainly ought to satisfy any action fan.
As with most Jerry Bruckheimer productions, the cast is one of the movie's strong points. Screen legend Sean Connery is the obvious headliner in what amounts to his last great action role while Nicolas Cage followed up his Oscar-winning turn in "Leaving Las Vegas" with his performance here. After all these years, I'm still not sure if I buy Cage as an action hero but he's an interesting choice, at least. In any case, for my money, it's Ed Harris in the 'bad guy' role who steals the show. Regardless, they were all given fine support by a nicely assembled group of supporting actors that included John Spencer, David Morse, William Forsythe, Michael Biehn, John C. McGinley and others.
Again, since this is a Jerry Bruckheimer production, you know that the production values are going to be up to snuff. He and producing partner Don Simpson had brought to the screen the likes of "Top Gun" & "Crimson Tide", so this movie was right up their alley. Even Michael Bay's direction wasn't as frenetic here as we've since come to expect. Sure, the movie goes over the top at times but, as far as big budget action movies go, "The Rock" is one of the last notable successes before traditional stories like this started getting completely overshadowed by fantasy & science fiction.
All in all, "The Rock" is a pretty good action movie. It's got plenty of spectacle but it doesn't forget to tell an engaging story as well. Even though it may not hold the same charm for me now that it did back when I was a teen, it still stands out as an above average action movie in the traditional mold.