Throwback Th-Sunday: The Rock

Last night I decided to have a few drinks, put on the nostalgia goggles, listen to some bands I really dug in high school, and watch one of my favorite movies ever, The Rock.  Yes, I first saw the film at an impressionable age and yes, of course, I know what you're thinking: "eww Michael Bay", "eww Nick Cage".   Yeah, I get it. Neither of those two guys have been in any filmgoer's good graces for years, but this was before that and should thus be treated with as little bias and pre-judgement as possible.

A quick summary: The Rock is an action film following the story of Stanley Goodspeed (Cage), an FBI chemical weapons specialist, and John Mason (Sean Connery), an ex British spy and former Alcatraz inmate, and their involvement in saving San Francisco from a terrorist threat organized by decorated ex black ops marine Francis Hummel (Ed Harris).   Hummel manages to arm himself with some warheads capable of dispersing poison gas over a large area and takes hostages on his base of Alcatraz Island in hope of getting recognition and compensation for the families of soldiers who have died under his command.  Goodspeed is contacted by the US military/government to assess the threat as he is the foremost expert in the weapon systems with which Hummel is armed.  Mason, on the other hand, has a unique knowledge of Alcatraz as he is allegedly the only inmate to ever escape the prison and is forced to assist.

Yes, at its heart, The Rock is an action film.  It has chase scenes and gun fights like you would expect, but they never feel gratuitous like some of Bay's later films. Here he allows the characters to drive the action of the film rather than the other way around.  The writing, which apparently has uncredited contributions from Quentin Tarantino and Aaron Sorkin, really shines through, unobstructed by unnecessary explosions.

It doesn't hurt Bay that he is working with tremendous acting talent rather than an Even Steven.  Connery is a total gimme.  The man is an absolute legend AND he is playing a British spy, something he has done once or twice before.  Cage plays the archetypal ordinary guy (as normal as a chemical weapons expert can be anyway) thrust into an extraordinary situation.  He does not overact and is definitely not painful to watch as some might think he is in more recent roles.  He is also not without his quirks, however, as his character rarely swears and instead uses more friendly phrases like "gee whiz", something that seems like a bit of an in-joke, which Cage apparently suggested.  Then you have Harris, who instead of playing a villain that you want to punch in the face, plays a villain with which you can sympathize.  He's essentially doing the wrong thing for the right reason, with no actual intent of hurting anyone that he needs to make use of in his plan.  On top of these guys, you get smaller roles played by John C. McGinley (Scrubs, Platoon), David Morse (Disturbia), and John Spencer (the West Wing) to name a few, all of whom are just fun to see on screen.

If you hate Michael Bay, you should give the Rock a shot, because he can make a movie that is not full of extra zoomed in CGI robots and 100 explosions per minute.  If you hate Nick Cage, you should give the Rock a shot because he's just good in it and the only time you are laughing at him is when it's because he's funny, not because his acting is laughable.  And finally, if you like Sean Connery you should watch because he makes this face...

...mere minutes before delivering one of the best film quotes of all time.

"Only losers try their best.  Winners go home and fuck the prom queen."