Slick, sleek, brainless and bold

Rating: 5/10 (31 January 2005)

THE ROCK
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Sound format: Dolby Digital
A grizzled convict (Sean Connery) - the only man who ever escaped from Alcatraz - is chosen to spearhead a military operation against a disaffected Marine general (Ed Harris) who has seized the former island-prison with a group of like-minded soldiers and is threatening to destroy San Francisco with a series of chemical weapons if the US government fails to restore benefits to the families of undercover operatives killed in the line of duty.
The last of the collaborations between über-producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson (the latter died during production) and the second film in an ongoing partnership between Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay (the first was BAD BOYS in 1995), whose 'style' emerged fully-formed under the producer's expert tutelage and corresponded entirely with the older man's cinematic ethos: Make it big, fast and furious, and when in doubt, blow something up!
David Weisberg's screenplay (co-written with Douglas Cook and Mark Rosner) rings the changes on an old formula by giving the chief 'villain' an altruistic reason for his behaviour, which renders proceedings all the more compelling when Connery's team (including Michael Biehn, William Forsythe and Danny Nucci) arrives to throw a spanner in the works. Nicolas Cage plays an unlikely biochemist employed by Connery to help defuse the missiles, and whose lack of combat experience leaves him at the mercy of Harris' increasingly volatile subordinates (David Morse, Bokeem Woodbine and a clearly psychotic Tony Todd), though Cage's terrified Everyman character quickly learns how to kick butt with the best of 'em. Slick, sleek, brainless and bold, the movie rarely pauses for breath throughout, and is hugely entertaining from start to finish. Bay and Bruckheimer consolidated this film's massive commercial success with a string of crowd-pleasing potboilers, including "Armageddon" (1998), PEARL HARBOR (2001) and BAD BOYS II (2003).