The Rock

One of my all-time favorite films. An absolute action hit for the time and quite possibly one of the best action films ever made. I was 10 the first time I saw it, and I told everyone at school about it until they had to see it too. :) Even with the distance of time, I'd gladly watch The Rock again anytime. The filmmaking is absolutely excellent, plus Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage have long been my favorites... (13/05/2009)

I've seen The Rock many times and I wouldn't say it's that much better than other action movies. Of course, Bay has proved what a masterful director he is, the technical aspect is a real feast for the eyes, and Connery and Cage deliver brilliant performances. But it's a bit spoiled by the cliched script, and, overall, it's kind of a copy of all other action movies. So why am I giving it five stars? There is one, absolutely crucial aspect. It’s Hans Zimmer's music, which perfectly captures the whole atmosphere of the movie and makes it an absolutely unforgettable work. If I were to name a movie with the best soundtrack ever, it would be The Rock. In hindsight, having seen other movies with Zimmer’s soundtrack, I could say this about each and every one of them, but none of them are as memorable. (10/09/2012)

An American action classic of the 1990s that fulfills all necessary qualitative parameters with flying colors. Michael Bay's perfect direction, excelling in the work with image filtering, as well as brilliantly composed action scenes. The star-studded cast of Sean Connery, Richard Harris and Nicolas Cage simply cannot disappoint. The plot is attractive plot and the screenplay is full of impressive explosions and action, and let's not forget about the excellent music by the duo of Nick Glennie-Smith and Hans Zimmer. The Rock may have slightly weaker sound and occasionally a few awkward cuts, but the positives easily outweigh the few shortcomings, and the viewer cannot be bored for a minute. One of those great action movies that we loved in the 1990s and usually underestimate in the new millennium. (07/01/2006)

“Personally, I think you're a fucking idiot.” When I was ten, I thought The Rock was the best action movie ever made. With the passage of many years, I still wouldn’t change my opinion. There are different reasons for why I admire Bay’s (and Bruckheimer’s and Simpson’s) masterpiece. He created a world in which everything is subordinated to the maximum action experience. The characters’ decisions don’t have to make much sense (and they don’t) – the main thing is that their actions look good (of course there is the characteristic circling around the actor from above) and generate more action situations. Despite its ambitious runtime and relatively long but later fully utilised exposition (we don’t get to Alcatraz until after an hour), The Rock is gripping from start to finish thanks to the actions happening in parallel, the deadline set immediately at the beginning and the continuous reminders of it, and the relentlessly driving soundtrack that transforms the film into a ready-made Zimmerfest. We don’t have a chance to catch our breath, thanks especially to the film’s brilliant rhythmisation. At first every ten minutes and then at even shorter intervals toward the end, a new obstacle/character brings about a key decision or the situation becomes more serious every. The diverse range of action scenes (car chases, shootouts, hand-to-hand combat) reveal new information and push the narrative forward. In addition to the horizontal forward movement, there is a vertical deepening of the bond between Goodspeed and Mason (the dynamics of their relationship become one of the drivers of the narrative in the second half) and of our knowledge of the characters and their motivations (Ed Harris definitely does not play a one-dimensional supervillain; on the contrary, the film’s first shots suggest that he could be the hero). The film, which thematises paternal responsibility in the second plan and offers a distinctive way of coming to terms with the trauma of Vietnam, continuously changes and develops, never ceasing to keep us in suspense and to surprise us, and never letting up for even a moment. Connery throw out one-liners like crazy, expensive cars are gleefully demolished and the bad guys are dispatched in inventive ways. The humour and ingenuity of the polished screenplay (in which Aaron Sorkin, among many others, had a hand) don’t turn The Rock into either light entertainment or an overly clever, self-reflexive deconstruction of the genre. Both of these aspects mainly help to humanise and better flesh out the main duo (in contrast to the deadly seriousness of the soldiers and the people running the FBI). Behind all of the spectacular explosions, daring heroic deeds and insane plans to exterminate humanity, we perceive throughout the film a believable human element, thanks to which we never lose interest in what’s happening and what comes next. In short, The Rock is a perfectly balanced mix of Bond, western and buddy movie. 95% (12/11/2015)

The Rock is a widely revered action movie. In visual terms, it is an example of great genre craftsmanship. It’s dynamically edited, filmed through cool filters, contains one of the best car chases ever (Hummer vs. yellow Ferrari on the streets of San Francisco), and it has likable and well-cast good-guy characters. But... it doesn't have a proper bad guy (!!!) and everything in it is so artificially timed and polished that I was never in suspense, I didn’t fear for the protagonists and I thus didn’t care what would happen next. Formalistically overwrought and formulaic banality. (06/05/2002)