Drinker's Extra Shots - The Rock

ah the 90s a simpler more innocent time when the spice girls topped the charts social media was confined to internet bulletin boards and jerry bruckheimer films dominated the cinemas if you liked slow motion shots of people walking towards things military gun porn big grandiose speeches from stern looking old men and the stars and stripes fluttering triumphantly in the breeze then these films basically existed to make you happy holy [ __ ] man i don't think we realized how good we had it back then and truly there's few movies that exemplify the bombastic melodramatic earnestly macho excesses of the time than the rock an action movie about a rogue military general who takes over alcatraz island and holds san francisco hostage with poison gas missiles unless his demands are mets facing him are a rookie chemical weapons expert and an aging former spy who was the only man to ever escape the rock the rock's a [ __ ] awesome action movie that pretty much exemplifies everything i love about films like this an inventive location over the top set pieces done with practical effects high stakes a great soundtrack cool one liners and a [ __ ] awesome cast who take their job just seriously enough to get you invested let's be honest any movie that can bring together nick cage sean connery michael baine and ed harris is all right in my [ __ ] book the rook begins when us army general frank hummel leads his unit in a mutiny stealing a bunch of chemical weapons from a high security storage facility and of course because this movie deals with a doomsday weapon there has to be a little demonstration of how awful it really is i always felt really bad for this guy like you couldn't have waited an extra two seconds for him to get out before sealing the door anyway hummel and his men take the weapons to alcatraz island which is now a tourist destination and capture the civilians that are visiting the place his demands are 100 million dollars to be paid to the families of the men who died under his command on covert missions over the years otherwise he'll launch the poison gas into san francisco clearly he needs to be stopped so the government recruit chemical weapons expert stanley goodspeed to go in with a sealed team and disarm the weapons the one thing they don't have though is a way into alcatraz islands enter john patrick mason the only man to have ever escaped the rock mason was a british spy who stole classified information from the us government back in the 60s only to get captured when he tried to flee the country he's been held without trial ever since then so needless to say he's not exactly enthusiastic about helping sean connery playing a british spy who mysteriously disappeared in the late 1960s whatsoever could this be a reference to anyway mason reluctantly agrees to lead the team inside in return for his pardon and release when this is all over unfortunately the mission goes tits up when the team gets ambushed and everyone except goodspeed and mason are killed what follows is a race against time as the two men make their way through the derelict facility taking on a small army of highly trained marines and doing their best to neutralize as many of the weapons as possible meanwhile tensions rise amongst hummel and his men and the government prepares an airstrike to vaporize the entire island killing everyone in the process it's your classic high stakes race against time storyline and it's got all the usual trappings you'd expect in films like this lots of serious looking men in control rooms commenting on what's happening lots of desperate shootouts close calls and last minute saves and of course a final confrontation where our hero has to take on the bad guy disarm the final weapon and prevent an airstrike that's about to kill everyone like i say it's a pretty standard narrative structure for action movies like this but i guess what sets the rock apart is the execution everything's got that extra layer of showmanship exuberance and creative flair that you can't help but appreciate yeah you're kind of aware that it's all a bit silly and overblown but the script doesn't give a [ __ ] what you think it's gonna do whatever the [ __ ] it wants also it takes itself just seriously enough that you can absolutely get invested in it it helps that the actors themselves are playing it straight down the middle too yeah there's little quips here and there and the occasional moment of levity to lighten the mood but the script never strays into farcical territory ed harris apparently worked closely with the writers to give his character more depth and complexity and it definitely pays off humble's not exactly a tragic shakespearean hero but he's definitely more sympathetic than your average antagonist he's got an understandable motivation for what he's doing he tries to avoid unnecessary casualties and the film kind of invites you to question whether or not he might actually be right in what he's doing but the core of the story revolves around nick cage and sean connery and holy [ __ ] that's a pairing i never would have seen coming but i absolutely love that it happens the rock marked the beginning of nick cage's big budget action movie career and a series of collaborations with bruckheimer but here you can definitely still see hints of the quirky eccentric character actor he started out as good speed is kind of a dorky lab rat who collects vinyl records and drives a volkswagen beetle damn he's like a hipster before hipsters were even a thing he plays it serious when he needs to but he also throws in little quippy jokes and snarky comments that kind of remind me of the early mcu movies and his interactions with mason are an absolute joy to watch speaking of which there's no way i could review this movie without gushing about sean connery he might have been older by the time this film was made but the dude absolutely radiates charisma and watching him go toe-to-toe with ed harris is like watching two tidal waves of testosterone crashing into each other but just like hummel there's also a bit of depth to his character and the scene where he awkwardly tries to reconcile with his estranged daughter gives you little hints of the man behind the tough facades it's also a perfect example of the design philosophy behind films like the rock this conversation could have taken place on any random street corner or some shitty public park but instead they decide to set it in this big lavish outdoor art gallery it's totally unnecessary but it's just the kind of extravagant visually appealing backdrop that the production chose simply because they could it also made childhood me believe that san francisco was a stunningly beautiful picturesque place to live anyway to get back on track you can absolutely tell that connery's having a great time with this role and he's got some of the best one-liners in the entire movie losers always whine about their best winners go home and [ __ ] the prom queen personally i think you're a [ __ ] idiot the feed thing yeah the feed thing yeah that happens i'm having kind of a hard time concentrating can you do something about it like what kill him again the action sequences are mostly well conceived and short and just inventive enough to stop you getting bored yeah there's one or two glaring issues like how the [ __ ] a man could survive something like this but for the most part i think they hold up pretty well even today and the fact that they're done almost entirely with practical effects and stunt work earns them a gold star from the drinker overall the rock is one of those films that seems to have aged like fine wine particularly compared to the bland forgettable sludge that passes for modern big budget film making today yeah jerry bruckheimer isn't a name you'd associate with high r and i'm sure nobody sees the rock as a deep and thoughtful insight into the human condition but who the [ __ ] cares it's a fun well-paced action-packed unapologetically overblown chunk of testosterone with a great cast a great score and some great dialogue and ultimately it does exactly what it sets out to do keeps you solidly entertained for two good hours and in 2022 that's more than enough for me anyway that's all i've got for today go away now

Channel: Critical Drinker After Hours

Views: 293,065

Keywords: Sean Connery, Nic Cage, Ed Harris, review, funny, entertainment

Id: Dtyv9CODkR0

Length: 7min 31sec (451 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 07 2022