Pure action bliss with a top notch cast.

Rating: 10/10 (21 November 2015)

Michael Bay's The Rock is one of the quintessential action films of the 90's (many of which Cage has starred in actually), and a blast of rousing energy and adrenaline that careens along in bang up fashion for two plus hours. From a breakneck car chase through the streets of San Francisco, to a furious missile raid on Alcatraz island and all manner of shootouts, fistfight and one liners in between, it's classic stuff. When bitter renegade General Francis Hummel (Ed Harris giving nobility to one of the most brutally relatable antagonists in the genre) hijacks several warheads containing deadly weaponized nerve gas and threatens to launch them from Alcatraz to the city, the powers that be scramble to find a solution. Hummel wants countless unnamed, Dead veterans to receive the accommodation owed to them by a callous, corrupt government. FBI honchos Womack (a snide John Spencer), and Paxton (sympathetic William Forsythe, excellent as usual) recruit rookie chemical analyst Stanley Goodspeed (Cage) to enter with a team of mercs to neutralize Hunmel's forces. They also dig up forgotten British secret agent John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery) from prison, since he once escaped from Alcatraz and knows the layout. Connery, cunning, genial and deadly when he has to be, is an absolute joy in the role, playing up the banter and swashbuckle with obvious shades of Bond. His dry wit and laid back, nonchalant nature together with Cage's squirrelly, regular joe exasperation lead the film forward with a momentum based in character as well as fireworks. The a nice turn from Michael Biehn as an intense SEAL Commander in charge of the assault on the island, Tony Todd is scenery chewing glory as evil Captain Darrow, and there's nice work from John C. McGinley, Claire Forlani, Stuart Wilson, David Morse and Bokeem Woodbine too. Set to a thumping score supplied by Hans Zimmer, eye boggling camera work from John Schwartzman and sleekly tied together by Bay's unbelievable ambition and opulent eye for staging crazy action, it's one of my favourites of the genre.