get ready to rock

so, i watched the rock tonight. did you know it's a criterion collection? i'm so excited for the entire second disc of extra features, including breakdowns of the craziest scenes and lots of talk about what makes a good action movie. i love the rock so much! i can't tell if it's one of those ones that everyone's obviously seen or not, but anyway, ed harris plays a pissed off marine who decided he hates the military cos they never acknowledge the dudes under his command who die on secret missions so he gets some really ugly lethal skin-melting gas and takes it to alcatraz, where he holds a bunch of tourists hostage and threatens to launch rockets with the yuck gas onto San Fran. he wants money i think, and he's not alone, he has a whole crew. so nick cage is an fbi biochemist who knows about the gas, and sean connery is a superspy who's been locked away in jail forever because he knows all the u.s. secrets but he's also the only dude to ever escape from the rock aka alcatraz (what a sweet nickname) so the gov needs his help getting nick cage in so he can make the yuck gas go away. he and nick cage get pretty tight so it's a buddy movie with a lot of beautifully done action scenes. pretty bloody and sometimes the dialogue is cheesy but maybe when i was getting bored with other stuff i should've turned to action sooner.

anyway, i recommend it. the music is a total up-pumper, too.