Soft, Chewy and Obviously Bad for You - It's a Cinematic Candy Bar

Rating: 7/10 (1 April 2012)

A perfect symphony of cliché and stereotype that Michael Bay's been trying like hell to recreate ever since. Literally every single shot dips liberally from the well of overuse, culminating in an early car chase with a little old lady, a roving gang of bicyclists and a dozen diving pedestrians in the road, no less than five instantly-combustible parked cars and a Lamborghini that leaps through a plate glass window. Nic Cage and Sean Connery, no strangers to this type of picture, freely toss away their inhibitions and embrace the cheese from word one and, along with a straight-laced performance from Ed Harris, somehow validate the whole thing. The dialog would have been deemed too unrealistic for a Hanna-Barbara cartoon, but through sheer force of will (plus a few blatant winks at the audience) it works too. Top of the mountain for the 'insanely stupid action flick' boom of the mid '90s, it's wildly fast-paced and thoroughly enjoyable in spite of itself.