The Rock - Criterion Collection

Rating:
Summary: Best action movie period.........
Review: The Rock is a great masterpeice that takes place on Alcatraz Island, next to San Francisco. A number of ex marines, led by Frank Hummel, played by Ed Harris, have taken control of 80 plus hostages on Alcatraz Island and threaten to launch guided missles armed with poison gas. Not only does the homeland security want to save as many hostages as possible, but each rocket can kill up to 75,000 people each.

Since all the wardens and guards have been dead for some time now the only person the good guys can turn to is the only man who secretly escaped Alcatraz years ago. That man would be John Mason, played by the great Sean Connery, who was locked away to be forgotten after learning all the white house's dirty little secrets of the past half century.

After several detours, an escape and a car chase, Mason agrees to work with the fake promise of freedom. He teams up with a nerdy chemical weapons specialist, played by Nicholas Cage, and a group of Navy Seals. Once inside the rock everything goes wrong and in the end only Mason and Goodspeed [Cage] are left alive to try and save San Francisco.

This movie is off the page from beginning to end, which is really hard to do nowadays, and the music is just awesome. Connery, Cage, and Ed Harris [who plays the marine general] all shine in their own moments throughout the entire movie. The action scenes are great, lots of deaf-defying maneuvers, which occur on the top of a lighthouse, and below the island itself on an abandoned coal mining track.

The marines even turn on each other at the end which leads to the shocking conclusion at the very end, if you haven't seen it yet I wont ruin it. Connery is the one who really shines and proves it in an absolutely breathtaking scene when he rolls under a buring furnace to unlock a door from the other side.

This is truly a masterpeice to suspension and action. Lots of other small characters help out to support the main actors and the ending is truly great. This is a must have for any fan of great action and great acting.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting premise !
Review: This movie is breathtaking . And once more Sean Connery stole the show . His ravishing acting literally gave the required dosis of reflexive , inquiring and chess mate mind who will allow him as the effective antihero to win his particular challenge and personal when he must face the master and commander leader of this renegade corp of soldiers who decided to menace San Francisco if their demands are not satisfied. They are looking for the late recognizement and economic benefits for the family of those soldiers who fell in the war .
The film is hyperkinetic ; the action scenes are loaded of high tension thanks to a credible script it keeps your interest till the end .
Even the formal considerations are a question of fairness , the main reason who led these soldiers to act by themselves will vanish progressively , looking for the action instead the dramatic nucleus .
Nevertheless the film deserves its own place . It has personality
and character and that is a triumph by itself in the actuality.