Barnes & Noble

Top-drawer actors, super-slick production values, and dynamic action sequences dress up this wildly implausible but breathlessly paced thriller. When renegade Marine general Ed Harris seizes control of the old prison on Alcatraz Island and threatens the San Francisco Bay Area with virus-carrying missiles, FBI biochemical expert Nicolas Cage is dispatched with a team of Navy SEALs to thwart the operation. His guide: rogue British agent Sean Connery, the only man ever to escape from Alcatraz. In his second collaboration with popcorn-movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer, former music-video director Michael Bay (Armageddon) employs kinetic visuals to divert audience attention from script improbabilities, and his viscerally exciting action set pieces are bolstered by fine performances from Cage, Connery, and especially Harris, who brings real depth to his villainous character. Criterion's double-disc DVD Special Edition illuminates every aspect of The Rock's production, incorporating commentaries by Bay, Bruckheimer, Cage, and Harris into a comprehensive package that also offers featurettes on the film's stunt work and special effects. Additional supplements include storyboards, production-design sketches, on-set stills, outtakes, trailers, TV spots, excerpts from a documentary on "The Rock" and its prison, and even footage taken at the film's world premiere on Alcatraz. Add to that Criterion's newly remastered digital transfer, and you've got one of the best looking DVDs released to date. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

The sophomore film from former music video and commercial director Michael Bay, The Rock is a 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. Karl Williams

Product Details

• UPC: 786936302516
• Source: WALT DISNEY VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Time: 2:16:00

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• The Rock & Crimson Tide

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