THE ROCK (1997)
Rating: 3.5 out of 4 /Buy the DVD Here
Tagline: Alcatraz. Only one man has ever broken out. Now five million lives depend on two men breaking in.
Directed by: Michael Bay
Starring: Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, David Morse, William Forsythe, Gregory Sporleder, Tony Todd and Michael Biehn.
THE PLAN: A disgruntled U.S. General (Ed Harris), with the aid of an elite squad of marines, take over Alcatraz (and hold dozens of tourists hostage) in the name of getting money for the families of their fallen comrades. The threat is that he’ll launch bio-chemical weapons into San Francisco if the money due his dead friends isn’t handed over. Only a goofy scientist (Nicolas Cage) and the only man to ever break out of the island prison (Sean Connery) can stop him!
THE KILL: Before he was one of the most reviled names in all of Hollywood, Michael Bay was just another up-and-coming director. Known for creating imaginative, award-winning commercials and flashy music videos, Bay was snatched up by the powerhouse producing team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer to helm their 1995 testosterone-fest BAD BOYS. The flick was an instant hit, so the duo pegged Bay to direct their 1996 summer tentpole THE ROCK… The rest, as they say, is history.
Michael Bay’s stylized commercial for road flares…
THE ROCK is easily Bay’s best film, showcasing his buffed-up visuals, his immature sense of humor, his overblown patriotic imagery, and his knack for making even the most routine action sequence a hyper-kinetic frenzy of quick-cuts and ear-splitting shrieks and smashes. These trademarks, of course, have now become a liability (at least for movie-lovers like me; they certainly haven’t hurt his career or wallet), but in 1996, there was actually something quite dazzling about Bay’s vision. We were all still quite used to the A-B-C style of action films; directors like John McTiernan and Renny Harlin – skilled as they were – had fairly conservative approaches to the mayhem their movies contained… Bay showed us something different, making every sequence a dizzying, disorienting rock-n-roll experience (all the while looking as polished as a diamond commercial). I must say, it was pretty refreshing, and even a bit exhilarating.
The awesomely 80s-ish trailer for THE ROCK
The smack-in-the-face approach isn’t just what makes THE ROCK a fantastic time, however. Bay also milked the “buddy genre” for all it was worth. Sure, it was easy enough to put Martin Lawrence and Will Smith together and make them crackle, but the dynamic between Nicolas Cage (as an intensely paranoid but brilliant scientist) and Sean Connery (as a gruff, cool and collected- well, as Sean Connery) is really what brings THE ROCK to life. The two share a lot of screen-time together, and every indication is that they had a blast making this movie; Connery gets all the good lines and macho moments, while Cage gets to freak out hilariously (and we all know how much he savors that). Whenever Connery shoots Cage a withering, “are you f*cking serious?” look, we sense that it’s not only the character reacting this way, but Connery himself. It just adds a little more fun to the proceedings.
The trial for DRAGONHEART will be swift. And overseen by Ed Harris.
There’s also added weight to the villain, stoically played by Ed Harris, as a man who isn’t a raving psychopath, but a regretful, morose soldier whose hand has been forced. We think he’s a good person on the verge of losing his mind, which makes him even more dangerous. But when it turns out he’s been bluffing his threats, the film reveals it has even more insidious bad guys in the form of two renegade soldiers (Tony Todd and Gregory Sporleder) who care not about God and Country, but money. And they’re pissed at being jerked around…
Bottom line: THE ROCK works like gangbusters. It’s the definition of popcorn entertainment: It’s genuinely entertaining, a little silly, a lot over the top, but also skilled enough at its job to make us care about and admire it. Bay has not come close to doing this again. Maybe it’s too late for him, but we’ll always have THE ROCK to remind us that, if only for a brief period in time, he was capable of crafting something really enjoyable.
TOP DEATH: Christ, this is tough. While I love Tony Todd’s “rocketman” death (being shoved out of a window with the aid of a fired rocket), the horror geek in me loves the death of sadistic Captain Frye (Gregory Sporleder), who has to eat one of the chemical weapon balls, which in turn turns his face into a smoldering, melting mess.
TOP ACTION: I like the emotionally charged massacre in the Alcatraz showers: when the Navy S.E.A.L.S finally arrive within the walls of the great prison, they’re surprised to find that Harris and his men already have them covered from a higher ground. After some shouting, the villains pour on the lead, and the sequence is surprisingly tragic. (Check it out below!)
FEMALE EXPLOITATION: Vanessa Marcil plays Cage’s ridiculously hot girlfriend. She doesn’t get a whole lot of screen-time, but when she does, for once we envy Nicolas Cage.
HOMOEROTIC MOMENT: There isn’t too much going on between the two leads (because Connery is such a badass and Cage is such a spaz), but I’d have to say there’s more than a little going on between Ed Harris and David Morse, who plays Harris’ right-hand man. They share a number of solemn glares that last way too long; if you ask me its sexual tension.
TOP DIALOGUE: Mason: “Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and f*ck the prom queen.”
DRINKING GAME: Take a shot every time Cage flips his shit all of a sudden, over-emotes a line, or just bugs his eyes out of their sockets. Needless to say, you’ll be drunker than a midwestern teenager on prom night.
TRIVIA:Ed Harris and Michael Biehn also co-starred together in James Cameron’s THE ABYSS.
Producer Don Simpson died during production; the film is dedicated to him.