Through the 1980s and 1990s Jerry Bruckheimer solidified himself as one of Hollywood’s biggest producers. Along with his partner Don Simpson, he produced many box office successes such as “Top Gun”, “Beverly Hills Cop”, “Flashdance”, “Crimson Tide”, and “Bad Boys”. Simpson would pass away in 1996, but Bruckheimer’s success only grew. He went on to produce massive hits like ”Pirates of the Caribbean”, “Armageddon”, “National Treasure”, “Black Hawk Down”, and most recently “Top Gun: Maverick”.

Simpson’s troubling lifestyle led to Bruckheimer ending their partnership. But before going their separate ways, the two agreed to finish their final project together. That project was 1996’s “The Rock”, a pure 90s action extravaganza. It was the sophomore effort from a young director named Michael Bay who had previously worked with Bruckheimer and Simpson on his debut feature, “Bad Boys”. “The Rock” was a hit with critics and with audiences with many still considering it to be Bay’s best film.

“The Rock” is fueled by big action scenes and thrilling set pieces. But it’s true bread-and-butter is found in burgeoning action star Nicolas Cage and the ground-shaking charisma of Sean Connery. Cage plays Special Agent Stanley Goodspeed, a biochemist and chemical weapons specialist for the FBI. Rather than field work, Stanley spends his days in a laboratory. Meanwhile at home, he gets news that his girlfriend Carla (Vanessa Marcil) is pregnant. She wants to get married but he’s got cold feet – a side of the story that never feels as relevant as it should.

Enter Brigadier General Francis Hummel (Ed Harris). Frustrated with the government’s continued mistreatment of soldiers who died under his command, he and a his disillusioned yet loyal squad of Marines break into a military weapons base and steal fifteen rockets armed with warheads carrying VX poison gas. They then take over the notorious island prison of Alcatraz, once the home of America’s worst criminals; now a tourist spot. Hummel and his men take 81 hostages, set up missile launchers around the island, and aim their rockets at nearby San Francisco.

Upon receiving Hummel’s list of demands, the U.S. government and the FBI hatch a plan to stop the rogue general. They will send a Navy SEAL team to infiltrate and retake the island. They call in Stanley to accompany the team in order to deactivate the missiles on site. But how do you secretly infiltrate a prison known as impenetrable and inescapable? For that they’re forced to seek the help of John Mason (a scene-owning Connery), a former British SAS agent and the only person to successfully escape from Alcatraz. He’s been imprisoned for three decades – disavowed by his own government and his identity wiped by the FBI.

His offenses are revealed later, but with a promise of a full pardon, the shrewd and sophisticated Mason agrees to help. So he, a team of highly-trained SEALS, and a nervous, out-of-his-element Stanley set out break into Alcatraz before Hummel carries out his twisted plan. It’s a bonkers premise, yet at the same time it sets up the kind of wildly entertaining action that was a signature of the 1990s and that we (unfortunately) don’t get much of these days.

Aside from Connery, Cage, and Harris, “The Rock” is lined top-to-bottom with fantastic familiar faces. Among them is David Morse, William Forsythe, Michael Biehn, John Spencer, John C. McGinley, Tony Todd, and Bokeem Woodbine among others. They all gel nicely with Bay’s high-energy 1990s bombast. What makes it even better is that it’s a great movie to revisit. It’s still just as fun, wacky, and thrilling as it was in the theater nearly 30 years ago.

VERDICT – 4 STARS