Capital Celluloid 2022 — Day 150: Wed Jun 1

The Rock (Bay, 1996): Everyman Islington Screen on the Green, 10.30am


This 35mm presentation, part of the Nicolas Cage on 35mm season at the Screen on the Green, can also be seen at the cinema on May 28th. Details here.

Chicago Reader review:
Very entertaining 1996 action hokum that benefits hugely from the use of its three stars—Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, and Ed Harris. Harris, evoking Dr. Strangelove‘s Jack D. Ripper, is a brigadier general so angry about the U.S. government’s refusal to honor the soldiers who died in covert operations that he kidnaps a bunch of tourists on Alcatraz and threatens to hit the mainland with lethal poison gas if reparations aren’t made immediately. Connery is a top-secret federal prisoner who once escaped from Alcatraz and Cage is an FBI chemist and biological weapons expert; together they form a funny and crotchety action duo pitted against Harris and his renegade commandos. Michael Bay directed from a script by David Weisberg, Douglas S. Cook, and Mark Rosner that’s high-octane nonsense but gives both the actors and the audience all that’s needed to make this diverting—car chases, wisecracks, narrow escapes, explosions.
Jonathan Rosenbaum

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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