Director Michael Bay
Starring Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris
Rated R
Score 4.5/6

A mild-mannered chemist and an ex-con must lead the counterstrike when a rogue group of military men, led by a renegade general, threaten a nerve gas attack from Alcatraz against San Francisco.

I was a little surprised when I had a look through my files and realised that I had not reviewed The Rock, so I suppose that’s a good enough excuse for a review.
Michael Bay movies are the kind of movies that you need to go to when you want to see something blown up. The 90’s would have to be the best decade for Michael Bay movies, though it should be noted that his first feature wasn’t released until 1995 and The Rock was released in 1996. The Rock was also released at a time before people made jokes about his career.
Sure The Rock is just a big loud action movie but sometimes that is all you need and besides there is a lot to love about The Rock. There’s the performances of Nicholas Cage, Sean Connery and John Spencer. There are also the performances of guys like Michael Biehn, John C. McGinley, Gregory Sporleder who I really grew to appreciate over all the times that I have watched The Rock. One other thing you have to admire men like the hotel barber who clearly takes pride in his work.
The car chase through San Francisco is brilliant and you have to feel sorry for the cable car driver played brilliantly by Leonard McMahan.
The score that was written by Nick Glennie-Smith and Hans Zimmer that has the ability to reach into you and elevate scenes into ‘hell yeah’ moments as you would expect from a movie like this most notably with the ‘Green Smoke’ scene.