Michael Bay is known for explosions and dumbed-down, easy comedy action movies. The Rock appears to be regarded as his best and probably most serious and realistic movie.
While a lot of it is ridiculous, at least the overall concept is plausible. And the villain has a "point of view" making him more interesting than someone who is evil for the sake of being evil. What keeps the movie entertaining is the high stakes and unpredictable characters. There is a lot of tension, violence and threats and the pace is very fast. So the flaws can be forgiven to some degree because they don't break the overall momentum.
All the familiar cliches are here - stand offs, military people shouting at each-other ("That was an order!", "I'm relieving you of your duty!", "Sir, I cannot do that, sir!"), shoot-outs, bloody final words, one-liners, bad guys making stupid decisions (and not shooting when they have the chance), the part where one guy gets left behind because there isn't enough time, the FBI people in some room looking at displays losing their heads trying to work out what's going on, the part where someone says "the son of a b*&$h did it" or something like that, the crying girlfriend, the car chase causing millions of dollars of damage which probably could have easily been avoided, etc.
I don't feel like there's much else to say. We know how these movies play out. There's nothing really original here. But the action is well done - some cool set pieces and plenty of sudden thrills. The performances are good - Cage and Connery are likeable with awkward but funny chemistry while Harris is intense and you half hate him, half get where he's coming from. Michael Biehn is an awesome actor so it's good to see him in this as a marine/soldier yet again. There are some nice character moments here and there where little details help develop the characters, most of whom have a soft side. The music feels like typical Zimmer, not unique but it gets the blood pumping.
This might be the smartest dumb action movie ever made, if that makes sense.
While a lot of it is ridiculous, at least the overall concept is plausible. And the villain has a "point of view" making him more interesting than someone who is evil for the sake of being evil. What keeps the movie entertaining is the high stakes and unpredictable characters. There is a lot of tension, violence and threats and the pace is very fast. So the flaws can be forgiven to some degree because they don't break the overall momentum.
All the familiar cliches are here - stand offs, military people shouting at each-other ("That was an order!", "I'm relieving you of your duty!", "Sir, I cannot do that, sir!"), shoot-outs, bloody final words, one-liners, bad guys making stupid decisions (and not shooting when they have the chance), the part where one guy gets left behind because there isn't enough time, the FBI people in some room looking at displays losing their heads trying to work out what's going on, the part where someone says "the son of a b*&$h did it" or something like that, the crying girlfriend, the car chase causing millions of dollars of damage which probably could have easily been avoided, etc.
I don't feel like there's much else to say. We know how these movies play out. There's nothing really original here. But the action is well done - some cool set pieces and plenty of sudden thrills. The performances are good - Cage and Connery are likeable with awkward but funny chemistry while Harris is intense and you half hate him, half get where he's coming from. Michael Biehn is an awesome actor so it's good to see him in this as a marine/soldier yet again. There are some nice character moments here and there where little details help develop the characters, most of whom have a soft side. The music feels like typical Zimmer, not unique but it gets the blood pumping.
This might be the smartest dumb action movie ever made, if that makes sense.