ROCK (DVD/2.35/DD 5.1/FR-DUB)Between his high-octane debut, Bad Boys, and 1998′s wannabe blockbuster Armageddon, hotshot director Michael Bay forged his dubious reputation with this crowd-pleasing action extravaganza. In it a psychotically disgruntled war hero (Ed Harris) seizes the island prison of Alcatraz and threatens to wage chemical warfare against nearby San Francisco unless the government publicly recognizes the men who were killed under Harris’s top-secret command. Nicolas Cage plays the biochemist who teams up with the only man ever to have escaped from Alcatraz (Sean Connery) in an attempt to foil Harris’s terrorist scheme. As one might expect, what follows is an action-packed barrage of bullets, bodies, and climactic confrontations, replete with enough plot contrivances to give even the most jaded action fan cause for alarm. It’s a load of hooey, but the cast is obviously having a grand old time, and there’s enough wit to make the recycled action sequences tolerable. If you’re ordering this movie on DVD, be careful with the volume knobs on your home-theater sound systems, because The Rock could cause partial hearing loss and structural damage to your home. –Jeff Shannon
March 5, 2010
#1
What a horrible excuse for film. The African American characters are portrayed as knife-wielding, blood-thirsty, foul-mouthed animals. The only female characters are: a) A completely worthless ditz, and; b) An extremely foul-mouthed African-American woman threatening gun violence. And the cherry on this Michael Bey/Jerry Bruckheimer sundae: A obviously gay hair dresser.. in San Francisco. Get it? He’s GAY.. a HAIRDRESSER.. and it’s SAN FRANCISCO!!!! Get it? Get it? Hee yuk! Haw haw haw!
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good, violent action flick. REAL man-movies. Peckinpah, Verhoeven, Kurosawa, Tarantino. THIS one is an execrable waste of celluoid. If I could have given it negative 5-stars, I would have.
Oh yeah.. I hope this doesn’t violate Amazon’s “No Spoilers” rule, but Nicholas Cage’s character.. he’s an Elvis fan! Does Cage play an Elvis fan in EVERY FREAKING MOVIE he makes?
Ugh.
March 5, 2010
#2
This movie is really bad. I like The Road Warrior much, much better. Pass this one up.
March 5, 2010
#3
This movie is horrible. Exactly what is Ed Harris mad about. Nick Cage does his usual over acting,I can’t believe this guy won an Oscar.
March 5, 2010
#4
I was dissapointed in almost every level of this DVD. First the movie. The plot was a little hard to believe. Yeah I know action movies are not supposed to be all that beleivable, but come on, Marine Corps veterans spend their entire lives protecting Americans and now they want to kill them all. Now the acting. Connery was a waste of talent. He is set up as this regal, refined british agent, but then has ridiculous lines like (said with an accent)”your beshd, losers always wine about their beshd, winnas get to go home home and f**k the prom queen”. When I heard that I almost replaced the disc as a coaster for my kool-aid. Now the action. Some decent shootouts, but the car chase had so many continuity problems it was insulting. Just look for the scene when the hummer first slams into another car, you could see right there that it was stopped in its tracks, but no it kept on going. Micheal Bay couldnt direct a car chase if John Frankenhiemer (the master of car chases, please see my review of his film Ronin) held his hand. Now the disc itself. It has trailers and a chapter search. Thats it. The bear minumum. No behind the scenes, no audio commentaries, Hollywood Pictures home Video should be a little more generous. They charge about $5 more than the average for their discs. Thank The Matrix I only paid $4.95 for this one (and I still think I was ripped off).
March 5, 2010
#5
I read all these reviews about how good this move is, and I am told that this was so good and I finally watched it. I must say that it is horrible. Whether it be the horrid plot, the over acting, or the ungodly car chase with the camera that couldnt stay focused on one thing for more than half a second, there wasn’t one thing good about this movie. I think it’s about time for Sean Connery to find something else to do. Because he sure didn’t add anything to this movie. The only movie I’ve seen hokier than this was the new Die Hard, but at least that had some good acting.