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Contents of Festivale Bookroom and Technology Bytes, Pictorial Guide to Melbourne and Victoria.

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A Reel Life film section

Issue: Winter 2013

The Rock movie review

Adventure in a Hard Place

Marine General Hummel (Ed Harris) takes Alcatraz Island hostage protesting the government's refusal to pay benefits to survivors of lost covert operatives. Biochemist Stanley Goodspeed (Nicholas Cage) is called out of his laboratory to join the SEAL team preparing to take back The Rock. Their guide will be former British Intelligence Agent John Mason (Sean Connery), imprisoned there for thirty years without a trial and the only man to escape. Can they save San Francisco from deadly VX gas?

David Morse, Ed Harris and John C. McGinley as desperate officers taking hostages in The Rock

Nicolas Cage begins this film as the obvious unpreposing hero, but it is the solid, experienced character actors Sean Connery and Ed Harris who lift THE ROCK above a mere action film.

For a action flick that, like most of them, relies on familiar tropes to fill in the storyline between the action scenes and the big special effects, THE ROCK is satisfying. It uses humour, especially in the wonderfully dry British delivery of Connery.

"I've been locked up longer than Nelson Mandela. Maybe you want me to run for president."

Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery in The Rock

The power of both Connery and Harris is their ability to know when to be still and when to make a contrasting demontration. Cage is twitchy and more flat than still, but this combination of men finds a balance that enables us to forgive the references, homages and outright grabs and let the film be just what it is -- a beautifully photographed film with great music, lots of action with breaks for smart-arse dialogue and good performances.

"Maybe later we can stop by the souvenir shop ... but right now I just want to find some rockets."

by Ali Kayn Australian release May 1996 For credits and official site details, see below Search Festivale for more work by the film-makers below. See also: Ed Harris appears in many films including Truman Show (1998); The Right Stuff (1983); The Abyss (1989); China Moon (1994); Milk Money (1994); Apollo 13 (1995); The Rock; Absolute Power (1997); Game Change (2012); Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

for movie, TV show, or person   Internet Movie Database. Film commentary and upcoming movie release dates at reel-life.info

Just the facts: Title: The Rock (1996) Written by: David Weisberg & Douglas Cook and Mark Rosner Directed by: Michael Bay running time: 136 mins The Players: Ed Harris, Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage, John Spencer, David Morse, John C. McGinley Official website: IMDb entry For session times of current films, use the cinema listings on the Movie links page. For scheduled release dates, see the coming attractions section. For more information about this movie, check out the internet movie database. For the latest additions to Festivale, check out the change history section.