The Rock

In this smashing action opus, deranged military man Ed Harris and his followers take over Alcatraz Island and threaten to launch rockets loaded with deadly nerve gas on San Francisco. FBI biochemical expert Nicolas Cage teams with federal prisoner Sean Connery, the only man to ever escape from "the Rock," to break into the impenetrable prison and stop Harris. Michael Biehn, William Forsythe also star. 136 min. Widescreen; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital stereo; Subtitles: Spanish; theatrical trailer; scene access.

Between his high-octane debut, IBad Boys/I, and 1998's wannabe blockbuster IArmageddon/I, hotshot director Michael Bay forged his dubious reputation with this crowd-pleasing action extravaganza. In it a psychotically disgruntled war hero (Ed Harris) seizes the island prison of Alcatraz and threatens to wage chemical warfare against nearby San Francisco unless the government publicly recognizes the men who were killed under Harris's top-secret command. Nicolas Cage plays the biochemist who teams up with the only man ever to have escaped from Alcatraz (Sean Connery) in an attempt to foil Harris's terrorist scheme. As one might expect, what follows is an action-packed barrage of bullets, bodies, and climactic confrontations, replete with enough plot contrivances to give even the most jaded action fan cause for alarm. It's a load of hooey, but the cast is obviously having a grand old time, and there's enough wit to make the recycled action sequences tolerable. If you're ordering this movie on DVD, be careful with the volume knobs on your home-theater sound systems, because IThe Rock/I could cause partial hearing loss and structural damage to your home. I--Jeff Shannon/I