UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

classicsoncall Present day movie fans can be forgiven for thinking "The Rock" is a biopic of Dwayne Johnson. Back in 1996, pro wrestling's 'Rock' was just signing with the WWE, and he's pretty much everywhere on the celebrity circuit today. I seem to detect a trend with a lot of these action/adventure movies. A lot of them start out with an intriguing, if not highly improbable premise, but after the preliminary build up, they turn into an endless escalation of gun blasts and explosions. This one pretty much follows the same formula, and if not for the formidable cast, might have been just another also ran. Actually, it is just another also ran, but Sean Connery gives the story some spark, and Nicolas Cage is acceptable in his role as an FBI toxicology expert. What's kind of odd though is that even though Stanley Goodspeed was a whiz regarding poisonous substances, it really didn't require that kind of knowledge to remove a detonator chip on a rocket carrying a poisonous gas. You just had to know where to find the chip.Well folks, dispense with the critical thinking here and just sit back to enjoy the ride. Plenty of gunfire and over the top action to satisfy the action fan, and not a bad supporting cast that includes Ed Harris, Michael Biehn and John C. McGinley. This is also the second film in a row I've seen with David Morse where he's not playing some sort of wimpy character. That's got to be worth something, and when I figure it out, I'll get back to you.

cinemajesty Movie Review: "The Rock" (1996)Just exiting the R-rated action-comedy "Bad Boys" (1995), Director Michael Bay took on an original screenplay by Douglas S. Cooke with ongoing support by producers Jerry Bruckheimer & Don Simpson (1943-1996) raising the budget from 55 to 75 Million Dollar in order to engage Academy-Award Winner Sean Connery as master escapist John Patrick Mason, Nicolas Cage as bio chemist Stanley Goodspeed and Ed Harris as the memorable character of U.S. General Hummel, who puts the prison island Alcatraz under siege to restore honor toward fellow Vietnam War fallen soldiers, where measures of doing the right thing turning into a area of grey, indulging the audience to consider the situation. The action scenes are of such high-visceral quality, captured in shutter speed changes, blood / guts and splintering bullets in 360 degrees views, especially in an infiltrating shoot-out scene at the sanitation bath rooms of Alcatraz.Shot on location in San Francisco and on the infamous prison island, where easy Californian living turns for the main characters into hostile life-threatening situations on urban streets, underwater, rock and stone of Alcatraz block buildings to prevent a major bio-weapon menace targeting the whole bay area. Light-hearted character Goodspeed gets turned into a combat soldier against all odds by a fully-trained Navy seals and special addition to the infiltration team portrayed by Sean Connery's interpretation of the character of Mason, creating a mystical touch to the picture of being the man, who escaped the prison island, which benefits to the entertainment levels of "The Rock", which stands out in retrospective as daring, hard-boiled and at times fair ingredients of humor in an unless serious hyper-realistic scenario of an action-thriller for the senses.Trageting the young adults with his R-rating, which came to the movies for motion picture entertainment in the summer of 1996, where the balance between 1980s live-action hardcore-boldness and 1990s digital-enhancements of visuals felt intact; a circumstance that with an inflation-cleaned-up ticket price of 2017 in comparison would bring a box office success of roundabout 670 Million Dollar at today's international box offices; due to shifts from overpriced live-action units to run fast-cheap digital effects factories a seldom kid in action cinema to come by nowadays.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

Alan Smithee Esq. Note: this is the only proof available that Michael Bay can make a competent and enjoyable film. Everything else associated with him seems to be cinematic cancer. It's an amazing action film. Too bad he spews out live action cartoons that are easily digestible to mainstream audiences. This one is a keeper, no doubt

Tweekums General Francis X. Hummel has had enough of the way US service personnel have been treated; especially how the families of those who died on top secret missions are told a string of lies and not compensated for their loss… to this end he decides to blackmailing the government by stealing a quantity of deadly VX gas; taking over the island of Alcatraz and threatening to launch the gas into the city of San Francisco if is demands to compensate the families aren't met within forty hours. Of course he can't do this alone; he is supported by a squad of ex-marines who expect to be paid handsomely.The government have no intention of paying him so assemble a team to go to Alcatraz and neutralise the VX rockets that are to deploy the gas. The team will consist of a squad of Navy Seals; Stanley Goodspeed, an FBI specialist in chemical weapons and finally John Patrick Mason, the only man to have escaped from Alcatraz who will be needed to guide the team in. Mason could be a problem; he is a former captain in the SAS who has spent the last thirty years in jail but has never been formally charged with any crime and is considered extremely dangerous. Once inside Alcatraz the Seals are quickly eliminated leaving Goodspeed and Mason to deal with Hummel and his men and neutralise the weapons.This film is packed with action; there are shootouts, a car chase, explosions and the threat of a deadly attack on a major city… the action moves at such a pace it is easy to overlook many of the more unlikely moments… the scenes in what looked like ancient mine carts under the old jail seemed too far-fetched but once that was over it was soon forgotten; at least while watching the film. The story may include numerous clichés but that doesn't matter as it is a lot of fun. Nicolas Cage does a solid job as Goodspeed and Sean Connery is in top form as Mason; he may be old but he makes us believe that is character is tougher than the young marines he is up against. Ed Harris does a fine job as General Hummel; a character who isn't just a pantomime villain. This is probably director Michael Bay's best film; he keeps the action moving at a cracking pace without losing the story in the process; don't be put off if you dislike his 'Transformers' franchise. Overall I found this to be a lot of fun; it won't be for everybody but if you want a solid action film it is definitely worth watching.