Rent The Rock on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: David Weisberg & Douglas Cook (story), David Weisberg & Douglas Cook and Mark Rosner (screenplay)
Directed by: Michael Bay
Starring: Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, David Morse, William Forsythe, Michael Biehn, Tony Todd
Rated: R
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Plot
When a vengeful general seizes control of Alcatraz Island and threatens to launch poison gas missiles, an FBI chemical weapons expert and a SAS soldier turned political prisoner join forces to stop him and avoid catastrophic results.
Verdict
It's a thrill ride roller coaster from nearly the beginning. While this has flaws, they're nothing the movie even considers addressing. It's a pure action move and it excels at that. Dialog just gets in the way of gun fights, car chases, explosions, and saving the world. It's ridiculous on almost every front as intended. This is action first, and everything else second. Connery and Cage acting against each other is comedic in of itself due to their acting styles. While many aspects of this movie are contrived, this movie excels at making that work.
Watch It.
Review
This was Bay's follow up to his debut Bad Boys (1995).
General Hummel (Ed Harris) infiltrates a military based and steals biological weapons. Just to show us how dangerous they are, one of his group drops a weapon. The others lock him in the room to avoid contamination as he dies within minutes. This is intense from the start. Hummel intends to right an injustice using the stolen weapons and taking over Alcatraz Prison, aka "The Rock."
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| Ed Harris plays General Hummel |
We're introduced to chemical weapons expert Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) as he battles a dual chemical weapon and incendiary bomb. He manages to defuse the bomb with mere seconds to go. It's just another day in the office. Goodspeed is recruited to stop Hummel and thwart the weapons, though initially he assumes it's a training exercise. He's paired with former MI6 Captain John Mason (Sean Connery), the only person to escape from Alcatraz. Mason has been locked up for thirty year with no trial. No one but the government even knew where he was.
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| Sean Connery plays John Mason |
Mason finagles a deal to get a hotel room and enjoy freedom briefly before the start of his mission. He escapes within minutes which leads to a car chase. He's in a Humvee with Goodspeed pursuing him in a Ferrari F355. It's unlikely, but it's a fun chase. How is it possible that so many cars explode when struck? It's part of the Michael Bay effect. Then there's the comedy of Mason in a high speed pursuit while on the phone. Goodspeed switches to a dirt bike to continue the chase while inexplicably also using his cell phone. The movie is ridiculous, but that's what makes it fun. Like how Alcatraz has some device with a giant spinning wheel and flames, and its only purpose is to make their entrance more daring. There's no way such a thing would exist in reality.
This is a collection of action sequences that on occasion features dialog. Cage tends to over-act while Connery is under-stated. They don't seem like they're even in the same movie. It certainly features a variety of action from stunts to gun fights to car chases. Despite an entire squad sneaking into Alcatraz, ultimately only Goodspeed and Mason are left. Mason plans to leave until he's told the true nature of the threat. He must save his daughter that lives in nearby San Francisco. I knew there was a reason we had a scene with him tracking his daughter down earlier.
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| Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage play John Mason, Stanley Goodspeed |
Together Goodspeed and Mason must thwart Hummel's group and disarm the biological weapons to save the city. Mason surrenders to provide Goodspeed time to get the last bomb, and ends up saving him after the fact. Despite Goodspeed disarming the bombs in the nick of time, the government had already launched a secondary attack that nearly blows them both up. Hummel gets a moment of redemption when he reveals he was never going to launch the weapons. It was a bluff for the soldiers that died under his command to get the recognition they deserved.
This movie has one goal, to entertain. It does that. Though it helps not to delve too far into the logic. This movie serves under the rule of cool.
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