The Rock

Renegade general Hummel (Ed Harris) has stolen 15 VX rockets, taken over Alcatraz, taken 81 hostages, and threatens to strike San Francisco unless The Pentagon pays him $100M from their slush funds. He intends to use the money to pay the families of the soldiers under his command who the government has disavowed over the years. In order to disarm the rockets, the FBI is sending their chemical weapons expert Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage). And they're digging up a mysterious British agent prisoner John Mason (Sean Connery) who once escaped from Alcatraz. When the team sent in to take on Hummel is decimated, Goodspeed and Mason must disarm the rockets on their own.

This is Michael Bay audacity to bring his heart pumping action style to bear. The action is big time bombastic joy. And for the best effect, he allows the actors to have fun in between the action. Nicolas Cage brings a lot of his manic energy and a bit of his crazy humor. And Sean Connery brings the Bond gravitas to the action. Plus the Cage Connery duo is a lot of fun, and they have great chemistry together. This is the best kind of popcorn movie-making.