Review of The Rock (1996) by Otávio Ferrari P — 04 Jan 2012

The Rock is very surprisingly one of the few good Michael Bay movies if you ask me. This, Transformers, and The Island were the only three films in the big list of Michael Bay action films I liked, everything else he has made in my opinion wasn't good at all. This film is what proves action films can have a good story and a good cast and still be a good action film. If you wish to see this for anything, see it for the fact that Michael Bay makes so few good movies and this is one of them.

The story follows a group of FBI agents including Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) who must hire a prisoner named John Mason (Sean Connery) to take down a group of ex-marines led by Francis X Hummel (Ed Harris) who have taken tourists hostage in the prison of Alcratraz. Its not gonna be an easy job.

The plot is a simple hostage story and was easy to understand. But what I really loved were the characters. Stanley Goodspeed is a character I really loved because of the changes he goes through with being tough and his family life. John Mason is tough and incredibly cool, the perfect action character. I could not really hate Hummel as well, all he wanted was respect to his friends who died so how can I really hate someone like that, this made him a very interesting character. Very nicely done story.

The cast is pretty great If you ask me. Sean Connery will always be remembered as the first James Bond, but over the years he has proven to me that he is just purely an incredible action star, he is just an actor who is impossible to not love. Nicolas Cage has found a role thats great for him, he is that one action star that has grown boring over the years, but I still remember him as the great star he was in movies like this. Ed Harris has always been a great villain, every time he plays one he just has that edge that makes him a great villain, but soon I questioned if he was really a villain. A very good cast.

The action is as great as I was hoping for. Michael Bay needs to do more action films like this where its not overdone by explosions every 2 minutes. It took time to put give a story and than the action which is the best action film, where they do not just make it a 2 hour long film trailer. Geez....... Michael Bay why can't you stick with great films like.

The Rock is a film with one huge flaw, that its ending is predictable and we know its going to end happy with their family lives being great in the end. But that is not the point, the point is that its a fun ride to be on along the way, which is what makes it a great action film. Bay has made some crappy movies like Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, and Bad Boys 1 & 2, but if he returned to films like this I think he'd be great.