The Rock [blu-Ray]

Thriller, Action

Sean Connery	John Patrick Mason
Nicolas Cage	Dr. Stanley Goodspeed
Ed Harris	Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel
John Spencer	FBI Director James Womack
David Morse	Major Tom Baxter
William Forsythe	Ernest Paxton
Michael Biehn	Commander Anderson
Brendan Kelly	Private Cox
Vanessa Marcil	Carla
John C. McGinley	Marine Captain Hendrix
Bokeem Woodbine	Sergeant Crisp
Gregory Sporleder	Captain Frye
Tony Todd
Jim Maniaci
Claire Forlani

Director	Michael Bay
Producer	Don Simpson; Jerry Bruckheimer; Kenny Bates
Writer	David Weisberg; Douglas S. Cook; Douglas Cook
Cinematography	John Schwartzman
Musician	Nick Glennie-Smith; Hans Zimmer

Between his high-octane debut, Bad Boys, and 1998's wannabe blockbuster Armageddon, 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 Blu-ray, be careful with the volume knobs on your home-theater sound systems, because The Rock could cause partial hearing loss and structural damage to your home. --Jeff Shannon