We got another Nicholas Cage for you here and he teams up with Sean Connery in action packed movie. He plays FBI Special agent Dr. Stanley Goodspeed while Connery is an ex-SAS operative Patrick Mason.
Movie starts off with a group of marines stealing some deadly gas enabled rockets from a military base. Thereafter this group lead by a general, Brig General Frank Hummel (played by Ed Harris) took hold of Alcatraz as their base of operations, likewise taking some tourists as hostages, roughly 81 in total. Hummel then contacts FBI threatening to launch the rockets unless he and his rogue team will be paid USD100 million from a secret fund. Hummel will then distribute the same to his team and to the families of dead marines who figured in black ops and were killed without compensation from the government.
Of course FBI will not negotiate nor pay up so they had planned to retake Alcatraz and defeat Hummel and his team. they enlisted Dr. Stanley Goodspeed to take care of the deadly gas meanwhile they reluctantly sought the help of Patrick Mason. Mason is a prisoner and was formerly detained in Alcatraz and who had escaped twice from the place, so the FBI knew he is the best person to guide the SEAL team tasked to retake the island.
In a twist of faith, the SEAL team got wiped out and its up to Goodspeed and Mason to defeat the rouge marines and defuse the rockets. In the process of doing this, the FBI meanwhile had an alternative solution, to prevent the launch of the rockets and possibly killing more people, they decided to bomb the island instead and limit the casualties to the 81 hostages, the rouge marines and our lead duo.
In the end, Mason was able to defeat the rogue marines and Goodspeed was able to defuse the rockets and save a lot of people including the hostages.
Nicholas Cage had a lot of misses in films but we like to see if we see him with a hit. This time he had one, with nothing less than Michael Bay directing this movie. So expect good old Mayhem and some gratifying action with from a young Michael Bay. Explosions isn't that over the top yet here but was necessary.
Cage's performance likewise is great here and was just right to be that FBI special agent who handles some weird deadly gases stuff. He still have that accent (toned down a bit) from Con Air and it is an endearing characteristic of his. We think of it as being a true American of sorts. LOL.
As to Sean Connery, we were surprised he was fit as a fiddle here. We can honestly believe that he did some of the action here (maybe). He's already old and unlike his last Bond film where he was ineffective, but in The Rock, he showed the rogue marines some moves. Great choreography in action, Connery pulls off a win here.
Story telling is great, we got some good charater development, add in a good play in pace, we are loving this film. The use of slow and fast paced scenes were done nicely adding to an entertaining factor for us. Script and dialogues were nicely written, meaty in plot, meaty in lines.
Side stories were likewise important and we believe you can't cut them out. We need to emphasize the gravity of the situation by introducing Goodspeed's pregnant girlfriend and Mason's daughter being affected should they fail in their mission. Mason's dilemma was felt also, he being a prison with keys thrown out, he was a reluctant participant, then had not choice but to help, then will be thrown back in prison again even if after helping save a lot of the population. These things were very much in the story even if the main plot was simply to overpower the bad guys and live happily ever after.
The Rock is a great film but however we did not get a sequel. We wondered why they didn't, and please do not make a reboot. We don't know how they can find an actor similar to Cage. They may have to tweak the story a lot just to equal the performance of Cage and Connery here.
You can buy or rent this movie on YouTube. Rent is Php180 for the HD version, Php130 for the standard. Buying it costs Php290 for the HD, Php210 for the standard.
