Product Description

A vengeful general and his highly trained commandos seize control of Alcatraz island and threaten San Francisco with rocket loaded with deadly gas unless the families of the men who've died under his command in covert missions are paid a million dollars a piece. Only two men can stop them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3356 in DVD
• Brand: Disney
• Released on: 1997-12-03
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 136 minutes

Amazon.com
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 DVD, 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

Customer Reviews

An Intelligent, Adrenaline-Pumped Thrill Ride!
The Rock is one of the greatest of all action films. This is a movie that not only presents some incredible, if not stunning, action sequences, but also a smart plot and intelligent screenplay. This is a film that really works in it's genre to the fullest. Director Michael Bay is a master of this material and adds great style and vision to already excellent material. The screenplay by David Weisberg, Douglas S. Cook and Mark Rosner has a touch of intrigue here, a touch of adrenaline there, a splash of rambo here, and the effect is great on the big screen. "The Rock" never slowes down but never gets dumb either. Elements taken from other films are lovingly polished to a gloss. Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery and Ed Harris all give convincing performances that ignite the screen along with everything else. "The Rock" also has some of the best of all action scenes. The chase scene through San Francisco is pure excitement and thrills and amazingly filmed. "The Rock" is intelligent, action-packed, and a wild, thrilling adrenaline-pumped ride that's also wonderfully stylish.

Wait for Criterion Collection DVD
This is one of the few action movies I think still holds up and this DVD presents it pretty well but there are basically no little extra things on it. Wait for the Criterion DVD to come out. It will more than likely have an anamorphic transfer (since they started doing that), great sound and it will also have a lot of extras like a history on Alcatraz, outtakes and of course a commentary. But unless you really have to have it and don't care for supplements, you can't go wrong with this disc.

Love Action Films/Hate Action Films - doesn't matter!!
By far the best mainstream action film I have ever seen. I am no action film buff and certainly am no action film watcher by choice (I compromise and watch some occasionally and my boyfriend lives through Martha Stewart), but I absolutely LOVE this movie.

It has all your typical elements of a Hollywood, cash cow, cookie cutter movie; former good guy gone wacky for what seems to him an honorable cause, hostages, a seemlessly planned terrorist attack, looks like there's no hope when the trained anti-terrorists get killed, average joe blow saves the day driven by the thought of his pregnant girlfriend. However, it thankfully skips the atypical action acting element of Arnold, Sylvester, and John Claude and is replaced with a humorous Cage, believeable Harris, and sexy Connery.

Admittedly, it has some great action sequences, though I thought the San Fran car chase seen had it's cheesey moments.

A-list cast, great action, and memorable writing (I often quote some one-liners from this film), make this movie a definite staple to our DVD collection.