Perfect Entertainment

Rating: 9/10 (10 June 2017)

Continuing my plant to watch every Sean Connery movie in order, I come to The Rock (1996)
Plot In A Paragraph: A group of U.S. marines, under command of a renegade general, take over Alcatraz and threaten San Francisco Bay with biological weapons. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicholas Cage) chemical weapons specialist and John Mason (Connery) the only man to have ever escaped from the Rock are the only ones who can save the day.
I love this movie. Both my kids love this movie. Everyone loves this movie. Even people who think it's rubbish, love this movie. Anyone who doesn't love this movie is just wrong. Any way you look at it, The Rock stands the text of time, and after 21 years, remains a perfect example of nineties action cinema and one of the most is one entertaining action movies ever made.
The cast are all on top form, Connery and Cage make for a great double act, and it is a pity that nobody had the idea to reteam these characters in a sequel (OK it may have been more than a tad far fetched) or someone else reteamed them as they do have genuine chemistry that you can not buy. Ed Harris invests Hummel with real empathy!! In fact, of all the villains in most movies, Hummel has a genuinely understandable motivation. Personally I think more should have been made of this. John Spencer, David Morse, Michael Biehn and John C McGinley all offer solid support
It's not perfect, there are parts of this movie, which drive me crazy. The car chase in San Francisco is a major culprit - the cutting is so fast and disorganized that the it's a headache!! You get an even bigger one if you look at the destruction of property and the lives endangered. Isn't this movie all about saving people from a terrorist attack?? That's my only gripe!!
The Rock went on to become the highest grossing movie starring Connery in a leading role, as it grossed $134 million at the domestic box office, to end the year, the 7th highest grossing movie of 1996.