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Promotional Lines: "Alcatraz. Only one
man has ever broken out. Now five million lives depend on two
men breaking in." "Cocked, locked, and Ready to Rock!"
The basic story has renegade Brigadier General
Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris) taking over Alcatraz, due to past
injustice by the U.S. Government. Hummel Explains: "The
men of marine force recon are selected to carry out illegal
operations throughout the world. When they don't come home,
their families are told fairy tales about what happened to them...
and denied compensation. Well, I have choked on these lies my
entire career! Well here and now the lies stop!"
He decides to blackmail the city of San Francisco
for compensation money for these men's families. When Hummel
threatens to zap San Francisco with poison if he doesn't get
his money, an F.B.I. gas expert Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas
Cage) and a former Alcatraz resident, ex British agent John
Patrick Mason (Sean Connery) who had escaped at one point, race
to save the day.
This action - buddy exciting screenplay was
written by David Weisburg / Douglas Cook ("Double Jeopardy")
and Mark Rosner, an imaginative effort that manages to develop
its characters quickly in the fast -paced action genre, with
twists and turns that keep the audience on the edge of their
seats. The characters actually have some depth to them. For
example, knowing that the boatload of tourists about to take
the Alcatraz tour were about to spend an uncomfortably long
time as hostages in the jail cells, Hummel, who came ashore
with the group, stopped a group of girls, and told them to go
back on the tourist boat because something unpleasant was about
to happen in the prison.
Directed by talented newcomer Michael Bay,
who also directed "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor,"
the film moves at an exciting pace, and skillfully intermingles
the character's personal lives with their tasks at hand. The
action sequences are well directed and put together.
Connery and Cage make an unusual buddy team.
Radically different in size, age, appearance and accent, this
teaming breaths some life into the much plowed action buddy
film genre.
Cage, in rare action film appearance, gives
a highly entertaining performance as a quirky, Beatles loving
deadly gas expert. It's quite a contrast to his Oscar winning
role in "Leaving Las Vegas."
Connery is well cast as a British spy who has
been imprisoned under harsh conditions, without benefit of trial,
since 1963, for a really dumb reason. He is offered his freedom
if he helps Cage and military enter Alcatraz through the underground
tunnels. Sly hints and references to Connery's spy past seem
also to be tips of the hat to Connery's Bondage. (He played
the original James Bond, in Ian Fleming's Bond movies.) Just
like James Bond would do, Connery uses his wits to get the upper
hand when they transfer him to a swanky hotel for a little pampering,
as he requested. While distracting his guards, he gets even
briefly with the sneaky F.B.I. Director, who was responsible
for his imprisonment in the first place. This creates a diversion,
and he escapes for awhile until Cage tracks him down.
John Spencer is excellent as the sneaky FBI
Director James Womack Spencer appeared on the last season or
so of "L.A. Law," to good effect.
My favorite scene is a wild chase that features
Connery, in a military Humvee and Cage in a Ferrari, which happens
right after Connery escapes fro the swanky hotel. The exciting,
involving chase is one of the best in years, holding its own
with the classic chases from "Bullitt" and "The
French Connection."
Other great action scenes happen when they
land on Alcatraz to fight and defeat the bad guys. Twists and
turns keep it all very exciting.
Ed Harris commands the screen as the general
threatening to kill the residents of San Francisco. Harris is
excellent in a pivotal role.
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