"Welcome to the Rock."

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2018)

Present day movie fans can be forgiven for thinking "The Rock" is a biopic of Dwayne Johnson. Back in 1996, pro wrestling's 'Rock' was just signing with the WWE, and he's pretty much everywhere on the celebrity circuit today.
I seem to detect a trend with a lot of these action/adventure movies. A lot of them start out with an intriguing, if not highly improbable premise, but after the preliminary build up, they turn into an endless escalation of gun blasts and explosions. This one pretty much follows the same formula, and if not for the formidable cast, might have been just another also ran. Actually, it is just another also ran, but Sean Connery gives the story some spark, and Nicolas Cage is acceptable in his role as an FBI toxicology expert. What's kind of odd though is that even though Stanley Goodspeed was a whiz regarding poisonous substances, it really didn't require that kind of knowledge to remove a detonator chip on a rocket carrying a poisonous gas. You just had to know where to find the chip.
Well folks, dispense with the critical thinking here and just sit back to enjoy the ride. Plenty of gunfire and over the top action to satisfy the action fan, and not a bad supporting cast that includes Ed Harris, Michael Biehn and John C. McGinley. This is also the second film in a row I've seen with David Morse where he's not playing some sort of wimpy character. That's got to be worth something, and when I figure it out, I'll get back to you.