THE ROCK – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #108 (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

TITLE: THE ROCK: THE CRITERION COLLECTION #108

CAST: Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage, Ed Harris, John Spencer, David Morse, Vanessa Marcil and more

DIRECTED BY: Michael Bay

WRITTEN BY: David Weisberg, Douglas Cook

TYPE OF MOVIE: Thriller, Action

DURATION: 135 minutes

A group of renegade marine commandos seizes a stockpile of chemical weapons and takes over Alcatraz, with 81 tourists as hostages. Their leader, a former highly-decorated U. S. general, demands $100 million to be paid in ransom, as restitution to families of soldiers who died in covert operations and were thereby denied compensation. Otherwise, he is threatening to launch 15 rockets carrying deadly VX nerve gas into the San Francisco Bay area. An elite SEAL team, with support from an FBI chemical warfare expert (Stanley Goodspeed) and a former Alcatraz escapee (John Mason), is assembled to penetrate the terrorists’ defenses on Alcatraz and neutralize the rocket threat before time runs out. (IMDB)

DVD EXTRAS:

• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Closed-captioned, DTS Surround Sound, Widescreen, Dolby
• Commentary by director Michael Bay, stars Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, technical advisor Harry Humphries, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer
• Two Disc Set
• Disc Two:
• Analysis of the dive sequence by Hoyt Yeatman of Dream Quest Images
• “Movie Magic” episode on the film’s special effects
• Outtakes selected by Michael Bay
• Production Stills
• Storyboards
• Production design drawings
• Do’s and Don’ts of Hollywood gunplay with Harry Humphries and Marshall Teague
• Interview with Jerry Bruckheimer
• Excerpts from “Secrets of Alcatraz” documentary
• “The Rock” world premiere on Alcatraz
• Widescreen anamorphic format
• Number of discs: 2

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): None that I know of

The Criterion edition of “The Rock” is finally here and it doesn’t disappoint.  The movie is full of action and explosions that the only way to watch this movie is through the Criterion Collection which includes the latest in DTS sound.

The movie is so full of action that you don’t want to get up off your seat for a second.  The visuals are great and the sound is awesome through DTS.  I’ve watched many movies on DTS and this is the first time I seen my receiver with the “OVERLOADED” message.  Many explosions and your subwoofer will have a good workout.

As for the special features, there are so many.  Although not as much as “Armageddon” (Criterion), this DVD still doesn’t disappoint because you get other cool features like the excerpt from the “Secrets of Alcatraz” documentary.  The world premiere at Alcatraz and “Do’s and Don’t of Hollywood Gunplay”.  You also see outtakes and a good behind-the-scenes look at Ed Harris as an actor.  Very serious guy!  I don’t want to be sitting next to him when he messes up a line.  Intense!

If there was any negative, it was the fact that the color selection bars on the menu sometimes worked on my DVD player.  So, sometimes I didn’t know which part of the menu was highlighted and would have to count and guesstimate where I was going into.  That could be my player though…

If you enjoyed the movie and want it on DVD, this version is the only way to go.  Highly recommended!

THE MOVIE: A-
THE DVD EXTRAS: A
THE DVD OVERALL: A