Tense and thrilling action

Rating: 8/10 (29 October 2005)

A highly decorated General steals a bunch of rockets carrying VX-gas and takes the city of San Fransisco hostage when barricading himself and his mercenaries on Alcatraz, aiming the rockets at the city. It's all up to an ex-con that haven't seen daylight in 30 years and a scientist who's never done field-work to stop him.
The Rock has a rather strong story compared to many other action movies. You really need to pay attention. The characters are great. There are really no bad-guy. You have sympathy for all of them and you get to know them as they develop through out the movie. The Rock has a couple of plots. The main goal is to put an end to the situation, but there is also Goodspeed's personal sub-plot. There are nice chemistry and interaction between the characters and the dialog is good. The movie has everything you want, drama, action, suspense and humor and it's all put together very nicely.
The cast is quite a line up of stars with grand old man Sean Connery in the lead with Nicholas Cage. They fit their characters perfectly and work very well together. Their performance is great. The rest of the cast is nothing less. John Spencer does a good character of Womack and Ed Harris joins humanity and military roughness as General Hummel. All in all this is a pretty strong cast that works well together.
The cinematography is great. It captures the variation in the mood very well, from a romantic love scene to an action filled car chase. It all looks great. The composition and lightening is good and it's Bay so expect nothing less than great, smooth camera moves. The editing, especially the car chase is quite nice. It's intense.
This movie would be nothing without the tense, action filled score. With a nice rogue military feel to it and a recognizable theme that you'll be humming the rest of the day. It's an adrenaline booster that bring out the action and really gets you going.
As for the effects they're good. They don't over do it and avoid the biggest clichés.
All in all The Rock must be said to be one of the best action film. It's tense, thrilling and filled with action. Even if you know what'll happen you can watch it over and over and still get a kick.