The Rock (1996)

At first glance “The Rock” is just another big budget Hollywood action movie - slightly silly plot, lots of gunfights and little depth. In this case, what you see at first glance is exactly what you get, it is just another conventional action movie, but one of the better examples of the genre.

Any good American action movie needs a high-concept pitch. It needn’t necessarily be believable but you need an idea to justify all the explosions. The concept here revolves around the former prison island of Alcatraz - the titular Rock - and the idea that, instead of breaking out, here the idea is to break in. The reason this is necessary is because some disaffected American special forces soldiers don’t like the way their comrades killed on top-secret missions aren’t getting the respect they deserve. Somehow they come up with the idea that the best way to commemorate their fallen comrades, and get full compensation for their families, is to hold a tour party hostage in Alcatraz and threaten San Francisco with nerve-gas equipped missiles. So far, so silly, but there’s a bit more absurdity to come. The government can’t stand by and watch this happen, after all it would cost money to recompense those war widows, so they set up an operation to retake Alcatraz. There is a back exit but the only person who can get them in is the only person to ever escape from Alcatraz - illegally imprisoned British spy Sean Connery.

Once they get to Alcatraz they have to disarm the nerve gas so bumbling chemical weapons expert Stanley Goodspeed (Nicholas Cage) is brought in, apparently there’s a lack of chemical weapons experts who have any military experience. He manages to persuade Connery to help them, after a gratuitous car chase (seemingly down the same street every other movie set in San Fransisco has a car chase down) and before long it’s Cage and Connery versus some angry special forces people.

The plot is quite silly, in many ways, but that’s never really been much of a problem for action movies. Much more important in the genre is the quality of the action scenes and this doesn’t disappoint. From the pointless but fun car chase to the numerous Alcatraz-set pursuit and gun battle scenes it’s all very competently done and despite the silliness of the plot there is still a fair amount of tension and excitement to be gained from it, especially towards the climax of the movie. One things that separates this film from the many other action films out there is the generally high quality of the acting. Obviously there’s no Oscar-quality performances here but Sean Connery is perfect for this role, seeming to have as much charisma here as he ever did as James Bond. Nicholas Cage is a bit less convincing but his character is reasonably likeable and Ed Harris delivers a fine performance as the idealistic leader of the disgruntled soldiers.

All-in-all this is an enjoyable action movie with some nice action sequences and good acting, recommended for those times when you don’t want to have to think about a movie.

Rating : 8 / 10

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All content ©2003 William Marnoch.

Comments? Agree/Disagree with the Reviews? Suggestions? Random Ramblings? Whatever you might want to say, feel free to e-mail me at william@wmarnoch.freeserve.co.uk .