I thought this was a great little review/revisit of The Rock!

http://www.thedashingfellows.com/caged-wisdom-the-rock/6446

Caged Wisdom: The Rock

There is an internal fight in my head between my inner child and my present adult persona with regards to this movie. The Rock was the first action movie I ever saw in the theatres. I saw it with my cousin to whom I looked up as a role model of coolness. I remember thinking that the stakes were so high in this film, the green stuff was so deadly and the bad guys were so bad that all hope was lost. “How on Earth can the good guys win now?” I asked my cousin about the time Sean Connery was trying to walk off the island.

Later, growing up watching The Rock’s kinfolk like Armageddon and Transformers, I see all the strings behind the show: the glutinous amount of poor CGI, the constant male adolescent sexual pandering, the stilted acting, and the need to forgo plot and character development for more explosions. I know the beats to the story (what little story there usually is) and I know one thing about these movies: all is never lost. The good guys always go home and f*** the prom queen as an elder Scotsman once said. But I still don’t know whether I should be ashamed of my naiveté back them or of my cynicism now.

Seeing it again, my two battling brains (my child brain and my adult brain) were actually cordial. This was a very fun movie to watch: the pounding drums and low registered violins, the slow-motion walking, the stunted, oft-grandiose strips of dialogue (a lot of people using the pre-amble “Make no mistake, gentlemen…” to their declarative sentences). Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer films are as distinctive as Scorsese’s, Fellini’s, or Osama Bin Laden’s.

Although this is Cage’s movie, he remains in the straight role. I love Crazy Cage but there is something about straight-man Cage that gets me all tingly. No straight-man says this during sex with his soon-to-be wife: “Yes, the Pigtails. Very naughty, naughty… naugh-TAY! Just, amaretto cream and Peach Sorbet Persuasion –” (?). It can be much more fun to watch quiet dignity intermittently give way to manic outbursts than full on nutso.  Cage’s crazy is always bursting at the seams of his straight man characters and perhaps no one but Jerry Bruckheimer (producer) does as good a job of loosening those seams.

Cage is FBI chemical weapons expert Dr. Stanley Goodspeed who has very little field training and teams up with the more-glib-than-usual Sean Connery who plays MI-5 British special agent John Patrick Mason, the only convict to ever escape Alcatraz. The United States needs them both because there is a rouge General by the name of Hummel, played with a stoic confidence (except for the end) by Ed Harris, held up in Alcatraz threatening to level San Francisco with a missile armed with VX gas unless he gets Medicare for veterans… or whatever. (My adult brain is pouting and staring at the popcorn now.)

Car chases in San Fran may seem old hat (Bullit still exists, right?) but with social commentary laced throughout this movie, the chase scene has something more to offer. The early chase scene is basically Connery driving and smashing everything in sight with a Hummer while the cops follow and tell the audience what it just saw.  One shot shows a 60’s VW Beetle with peace signs and psychedelic paint job get run over by said Humvee (yeah, f*** Peace!).

But like a broken clock, the director Michael Bay manages to get it right almost by accident during the scenes between Mason and his daughter. It’s one of the most emotionally true moments in a Bay film and makes Sean much more the hero in my eyes than Cage. Cage has been toned down to make room for Sean as the ultimate badass. But that’s when Cage rises to the challenge and earns the award for best line delivery: “Let’s cut the chit-chat, A-HOLE!” (My child’s brain is still wired from the chase, “yeah, f*** peace!”)

By the time Nic Cage stabs himself in the heart with the antidote both my child and adult brain are agog and sitting on the edge of our seats. It could have been a really tight little film that could stand next to Die Hard as one of the best claustrophobic action movies. But make no mistake gentlemen, it’s still up there. And it’s because they made a nice blend child and adult-brained fun.

Drinking game suggestions:

Take a shot every time Cage borrows a line from another character in the film, perhaps inspiring the Dude in the Big Lebowski two years later.

Fun game: Count the amount of furrowed brows by grizzled vets in this scene. It’s more than you think.