Mr. Cage and the Gooey Kablooie

The Movie: The Rock, directed by Michael Bay
Recommendation: We'll say...oh...Roger Ebert?
Reason: "The Rock is a first-rate, slam-bang action thriller with a lot of style and no little humor." Also, I bloody well love this movie.

Let's talk about iconic moments for a moment here. Movies, like music, books and other forms of art that have a distinct progression about them, follow a pattern of rise and fall. The action, dialogue, intensity, whatever you like, escalates through the movie until there is finally a moment. The climax. THE moment. If you've seen this movie (and even if you haven't), you probably know what this moment is in The Rock. If we can give Michael Bay credit for one thing, it's that he can certainly create one hell of a climactic image.

In The Rock, Mr. Blows-Things-Up-All-The-Time stumbled across an excellent script and managed to blackmail and/or hire three great actors to take the lead roles. They play hard, and the utter conviction that Connery, Cage and Harris bring to their roles lends a strange sort of gravity to what is otherwise an utterly looney story. Who else would take a movie about domestic terrorism on Alcatraz seriously? Though there are shades of later, less how-shall-we-put-this 'good' projects in the performances, the chemistry between the actors is great. Even the supporting cast (including Corporal Hicks!) turns in some solid work. The Rock is, essentially, a demonstration of what the action genre as a whole should be. I agree with Ebert-this is the peak.

Are there problems with the movie? Likely. I can't think of any right now, as the action still has a hold on my head. I love this movie, always have and always will, so thank you to the scriptwriters for giving us a film with cunning and wit. Thank you to the actors, for giving us characters with meat and texture, with more personality than was asked of them. Thank you to Michael Bay. I have never seen a San Francisco trolley do a triple flip outside of this film.

-151/365 down, 214/365 to go