Perhaps such a brief review leaves too much unsaid, however. After all, The Rock, was one of 1996's highest-grossing films, received mostly favorable reviews, and led to a new action-hero career for Nicholas Cage, hard on the heels of his 1995 Oscar (the already-rleased Con-Air, and the upcoming Face/Off and Superman Lives).
So let it be said that some things do go right here, above all, the casting of Cage and Sean Connery. Connery, of course, does his usual competent character, guiding his young charge (Cage) about: typical of Connery's roles ever since Highlander. Nobody can do competent self-assurance like Connery.
Cage, the "biochemical superfreak", plays a man who is a novice to hand-to-hand combat, but who rises here to the occasion. While this role is one of the hoariest cliches around (one of dozens of cliches to surface in the film), Cage plays him with a flamboyance and verbal facility that most actors could not manage. Cage is the film's chief pleasure.
Not among the film's pleasures is Ed Harris, probably the most overrated character actor alive. Like so many of his roles, here he is a gung-ho military officer, all for God, the Flag, and Apple Pie--who just happens to be holding the Bay Area for ransom. Huh? The screenplay attempts to justify such a ridiculous notion, but neither it not Harris' performance pulls it off (and don't tell me about militias or any of that crap, cause I still don't buy his character).
The action scenes here were highly-lauded, but there is nothing here that hasn't been done (better) elsewhere. To enumerate the inadequacies would be a long and depressing exercise, so I will be brief. The screenplay is nothing but a clumsy outline, with "human interest" pasted on in laughable fashion. The cinematography and editing are choppy, making the film seem more like a 130 minute trailer than a feature film. The music is routine stuff, and two of the more exciting scenes are stolen right out of Tarantino.
A waste of time, a waste of resources, a waste of actors, a waste of money. In a word: avoid it. Cage and Connery have both made plenty of good movies, so there's no sane reason to see this stinkburger.
Copyright 1997 by Dale G. Abersold
