The Rock Reviews

Action testosterone fueled movie where muscular bodies crash through glass windows in slow motion, fall through glass ceilings or are impaled on some kind of pointed spikes or the number of deaths by slow-motion exploding squib charges.
A crack unit of Navy SEALs is ordered to retake the island, but they are ambushed by the marines, and all but two of the party are killed in a firefight. A team of SEALS into the lower systems of Alcatraz only to be violently ambushed Once on the island, the SEALS, as predicted, are crap and get killed instantly. The team of Navy Seals barely make it inside the prison when things take a dramatic turn for the worse. They are surrounded by General Hummel's Marines in the prison's shower room and mercilessly massacred. SEALS will never surrender and the Marines will never withdraw their weapons. Marine and SEAL are brothers of each other and they kill each other like enemies. Delusion that these jack-offs alpha males are anglo-saxon supermen impervious to bullets, reminds of a Vietnam operation, when a regiment of tough rangers was wiped out by a platoon of Soviet special forces in a narrow valley.

Michael Biehn is at his best, delivering yet another astonishing performance as a Navy SEAL and he and Ed Harris hit the orgasmic climax of the film on the shower room fight. A scene in the Alcatraz shower room where all of the Navy studs are brutally killed in a massacre that General Hummel tries desperately to stop. The slaughter of the heroic Navy Seal Crack Insertion Team patrol of Navy SEAL's are badly killed in the name of their country, the SEAL's are predictably wiped out. It’s a scene where ALL the Navy Seals pile up in that one room, all strung up for one big massacre, bracing for manly death! Michael Biehn as the tough Navy SEAL Team Leader who refuses to stand down, crawling through the carnage as his team are being massacred, still firing. .The mercenary marines were especially cool in their crazed bloodlust. That bathroom scene when all the Navy SEALS get slaughtered with all the slow motion it’s a scene that goes hardcore - commanders going back and forth with endless military jargon, foam dripping from their mouths like beasts in heat, climaxing in a massive shoot out!

To this day, it is still the most popular movie directed by Michael Bay. I mean, the transformers flicks have been highly successful financially but they are also despised by many movie viewers (including myself) whereas this movie has always been genuinely respected. Indeed, even though I'm not exactly a die-hard action movie fan, I certainly enjoyed this one and it is a definite milestone for many players involved. For Bay and Bruckheimer, it was a step forward following their previous effort but it was not yet as preposterous as their following productions like 'Armageddon' for example. For Sean Connery, it would be the last time we would see him play such a bad-ass character, some kind of awesome older version of James Bond, his most iconic part. For Nicolas Cage, for good or bad, it was the start of his action movie career. Even though his recent action flicks were pretty terrible, his first outing was actually pretty cool. Back in those days, even for something really weak, Cage would do his best to deliver a solid performance and, here, he delivered all his lines in such an hilarious way, it's really too bad he has lost his touch. To conclude, at the end of the day, it is nothing mind-blowing and rather preposterous but it remains a very well made and terribly entertaining action flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Like Bad Boys, this is one Michael Bay movie that sounded like it might be somewhat tolerable.
The plot is that a rogue general is holding tourists on Alcatraz for ransom, so a team is sent in to stop him, led by a chemical weapons expert and the only man ever to have escaped the Rock.
First of all, the performances are all just as wooden as any other Michael Bay movie. Right from the first line, where Ed Harris says, "I miss you," at his wife's grave with no conviction whatsoever, I could tell what I was in for.
But my main issue with this movie is just the fact that it's boring. The action scenes are almost relentless – and I probably wouldn't mind that if it were good action, but it's not. It's that incomprehensible Michael Bay action. There isn't a single camera angle that works, and the editing is just a random mess. In particular, the scene with the derailed tram could have been awesome, but it's ruined by an overreliance on shaky cam.
But, to be fair, this movie did have potential. The second half is actually pretty well paced and has enough momentum that, in the hands of a good director, it probably could have been enjoyable. Michael Bay really seems to have a talent for ruining anything he touches!
In conclusion, while I didn't hate it, this was just as underwhelming as I probably should have expected.

My rating: 25%

The Rock is complete bad-ass. If this sentence reminded you of the wrestler, don't bother reading this review. Michael Bay has become synonymous with big-budgeted flicks with little to no soul to them nowadays. The Rock is as arthouse a film as one can get. This film is still to this day his most celebrated film, and his most critically acclaimed, and that's ironic seeing he is less known for his one sole hit and more for his string of misses, namely Armageddon, Pearl Harbour and the Transformers franchise, which were far more superior in the "financially acclaimed" and less in the "critically acclaimed."

This film is nothing more or less than a standard, generic action film. All the signatures of one are present here, some being thinly characterized, others starkly presented. It has mindless destruction, some off-dialogue, and some moments of insanity, but despite this, The Rock is actually one of the more plausible action films I've seen with a damn engaging storyline and powerhouse performances by the lead trio. Since it's an American film, it also has a tiring pseudo-patriotic speech by the president that's less on the tears and more on the groans! These moments do little to no justice in the film, and only belong to the real world.

In the performances, this is the last time we get to see Sean Connery as a complete bad-ass character, in one of his strongest performances of his career. He completely owned the film, and his introduction is arguably one of the greatest in recent movie history: a huge, rusty and tough as nails prisoner with a grunge hairdo. Not bad for a guy who once introduced himself as "Bond. James Bond." Even though Mason lacks emotional depth, he is at home in the carnage and destruction, that makes his character look like a mustachoi'd, hair metaller version of the Terminator, or maybe a steampunk-era reject. Joining him is Nicolas Cage in one of his best roles to date, giving an entertaining performance. Just like the case with Mason, we almost never get to see Stanley's emotional side, but instead get to see all sides relating to carnage, violence, and swearing. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because they felt too one-sided at times, too restricted. But unlike other action movies which are completely mindless, this one had depth, had value. Ed Harris had integrity in his role as Gen. Hummel, the antagonist in the film. He had his character down pat.

As much as a high point the film was to many who were involved in it, it was also the last greatest effort for many. Michael Bay, for one, never directed a great film after this. Big on the money, yes, but low on the quality. this was Sean Connery's last greatest role before he retired - after a string of failures, that is. Same goes for Nicolas Cage, although he did have a string of hits, another Oscar nomination, and a great comeback in Kick-Ass, almost none matched up to this film and his 90's films in general.

In conclusion, The Rock is an awesome piece of work, has (almost) everything you could ask for, and should be right up your alley if you enjoy films like these.

7.5/10

Nice Movie, I don't like action movies too much though this movie is really nice.

Making a good action scene isn't really all that hard. You just need some action to it, and voila. You have a good action scene. Then you just slap some cliched score ontop and edit it nicely. But let's take a look at what action scenes are about; They're about people being involved in action. Be it a car chase, a shootout or even a fistfight, it always involves primary or secondary characters duking it out with eachother. Usually it's the bad guys vs the good guys. Now what is the very definition of a good action scene? Its excitement. If an action scene fails to excite you, it has failed. Contrary to what you may or may not believe, action scenes do not make your palms sweaty just because they're good action scenes. If a movie was nothing but a collage of various back-to-back action sequences, you would not be excited. Why? Because of the people involved in those action scenes. No matter how well an action scene may be directed, you will not give a damn about what happens to the people involved unless you actually care about them. And what makes you care about them? Every other scene in the film. If all goes well with the rest of the movie and the good and bad guys are well written, during those shootouts you will be rooting for the good guys to overcome evil. The Rock is a movie that tries very, very hard to make you care for it's characters, but ultimately fails in it.

The Rock revolves around Stanley Goodspeed, portrayed by Nicholas Cage. He's a very good bomb defusing-guy(all technical terminology can be removed, because that is what he essentially is), and so he is needed to defuse missiles who the evil General Hummel (Harris) has stolen. Hummel has set a base in Alcatraz, so naturally the only way to get to him is to get Sean Connery (named John Mason in the movie, but his role is Sean Connery with grungier hair), the only person ever to escape Alcatraz, to come with Goodspeed and a SEAL-team to the prison and lead them around it. The plot is pretty much an excuse for some well-made action, but as I said, it really, REALLY wants to be something else. Goodspeed is prettymuch a pretty boy, who works with a scout-like set of ethics, and his teaming with the loose cannon Mason is almost as hilarious as the combination of Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan in the Rush Hour-movies. Meaning that it really isn't a very good one. Goodspeed is probably the only character who gets some even remotely senseful (or working, for that matter) charecterisation throughout the entire film. For Mason, there's a 20-minute useless segment where he escapes FBI-containment to meet his daughter. Naturally, to get to her, he has to drive 100mph through San Fransisco with Goodspeed hot in his trail. After this scene, his daughter is barely ever mentioned, let alone this entire incident. So we had to watch a 20-minute, rather dull chase, for nothing? Thanks, Michael Bay! Naturally, the bad guy also gets some character development, because he's a former military guy, so he has a dark and political purpose to his actions. Does it change him? No. In fact, nothing that happens in this movie changes any of the characters, aside from causing a permanent case of death to most of them. Stanley Goodspeed is still Stanley Goodspeed in the end of the movie, even though he does learn how to shoot people and be an action-guy in general, and Sean Connery is still Sean Connery in the end. It leaves you feeling somewhat empty when the character development is this nonsenical.

Now, from a technical standpoint, The Rock is a pretty solid movie. Despite the questionable material they're given, the actors do make the most out of it, and as a huge Michael Biehn-fan, it's fun to see him do an action role for the first time in a while. As I said previously, Sean Connery plays Sean Connery, and does it as well as he's done it for 20 years before this movie. Ed Harris is a bad guy for the millionth time, Nicholas Cage is a good one for the gazillionth time, and they do the same things they always do in their good guy/bad guy-roles. Which is nothing I would complain about, since it works. The score is something that elevates all the action scenes in The Rock. While not singularily making them good, it does come close to doing so. Bay does an alright job directing, making good action scenes but dull dialogue scenes. And with dialogue as ridicilous as some of the material in this movie, I honestly can't blame him. His way of making action scenes can be somewhat tiresome with the quick cuts and all, and especially for a movie that runs well over two hours, it makes for very good material to give epileptics some seizures.

The Rock does leave you wondering about several plot holes, which I won't bother listing here, but you need to ask yourself, do you really care at all about the plot or do you just want to watch people get shot and shout really loud? If you do, put an extra 3 points to my rating to get what you're likely to think.