The Rock
The sophomore film from former music video and commercial director Michael Bay, this fast-paced action yarn featured rapid-fire editing, a cutting-edge rock soundtrack and liberal use of shots awash in a haze of burnished hues, all trademarks of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Nicolas Cage stars as Stanley Goodspeed, an FBI chemical weapons expert handed a unique assignment. Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris), an insane Marine Corps general, has taken 81 tourists hostage on the abandoned island prison of Alcatraz. He and his men are threatening to bomb San Francisco with deadly gas unless $100 million is paid in war reparations to the families of servicemen killed in covert operations. Goodspeed is teamed with former British spy John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery), the only man ever to escape "The Rock," as well as a Navy SEAL team. When their military escorts are ambushed, it's up to odd couple Goodspeed and Mason to break into Alcatraz and stop Hummel. The Rock was the last film produced by Simpson, who died of a drug overdose before the film's release. Solo, his partner Bruckheimer continued making the sort of glossy, frenetic films for which the duo was famed. more..
Director: Michael Bay
Starring: Sean Connery,Nicolas Cage,Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, William Forsythe
A first-rate, slam-bang action thriller with a lot of style and no little humor.
It's a popcorn-movie deluxe.
A raucous, in-your-face, commando-style action thriller that makes provocative use of Alcatraz as a lunatic's lair and San Francisco as a sitting duck.
Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage inject tasty bits of personality into their roles.
Buried under an avalanche of action. (1996 June 7, pg. D1)
Top Box Office Films
ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards (1997)
Best Sound
Academy Awards (1997)
Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (1997)
Best Edited Feature Film
American Cinema Editors (1997)
Hans Zimmer
BMI Film & TV Awards (1997)
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