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In Short: An unfortunately basic early Disney release of the Michael Bay action film.
The Movie:
Michael Bay's second film is more of his almost cartoonishly over-the-top action that also populated "Armageddon", with the film's strongest performance actually coming from the villian, played by Ed Harris. In this film Nicholas Cage plays Dr. Stanley Goodspeed, a chemical weapons specialist who is joined by not only a former Alcatraz Prisoner(Sean Connery), but a millitary squad. The reason they're off to the Rock is that Harris's General Hummel has aimed poison gas rockets at San Francisco and is ready to fire if his demands aren't met. If time runs out, then the millitary will bomb the rock and everything on it.
Although there's no denying that once "The Rock" gets going, it flys by, there are also a few moments during the time prior to getting there that feel a little slow. Although there are a few spectacular action scenes, such as the car chase through the streets of San Francisco, they don't feel smoothly tied in to the rest of the movie, and there are a few scenes in this film that obviously happen in the service of moving the plot this way or that. Where the rest of the film seems over-the-top, Harris's dramatic performance keeps it grounded(Like Billy Bob Thornton's kept "Armageddon" grounded).
"The Rock" is simply what Bay does best; move things along fast enough so that the audience doesn't have a second to analyze what's going on. The performances are strong across the board, although again, Harris's is the strongest. "The Rock" is simply a good, fun action movie and not much more than that.
The DVD
VIDEO: Although the picture generally looks clear, at closer glance there are certainly some problems that are visible. The picture looks consistently soft, although this is most noticable in some of the dimly lit or dark scenes, where detail is lacking slightly. Colors are fine, though: the streets of San Fransisco look bright and colors come across as vibrant and accurate.
Besides the rather soft nature of some of the movie, there are a few sequences where some aliasing pops up as well. This is one of the earliest Disney releases and it's seriously unfortunate that more effort was not put into the image quality. It's a watchable image, certainly, but it's one of those discs a little more effort would have likely produced an image that was stunning.
SOUND: "The Rock" is your usual, everyday intense action movie soundtrack, providing plenty of explosions and gunfire. Surround use is excellent, providing an enveloping environment for the film's major action scenes. This is a really strong, dynamic soundtrack with plenty of bass making appearances through various scenes. Hans Zimmer's great score(has he ever has a score that wasn't great?) sounds fantastic; rich and clear throughout. Dialogue has no problems, sounding clear and never thin.
MENUS:: Very basic early Disney menus. They're still just basic today, unfortunately.
EXTRAS: Just the trailer.
Final Thoughts: Wait for the special edition in 2000 from Criterion.
The Film: 84/B = (420/500 possible points)
Video 82/B = (328/400 possible points)
Audio: 96/A = (384/400 possible points)
Extras: 70/C- = (210/300 possible points)
Menus: 70/C- = (140/200 possible points)
Value: 80/B- = (240/300 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1722/2100
Average:82%/B
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