Blu-ray Review: The Rock

The Rock is one of my all-time favorite action films. There is little to fault in the script or the acting. It is a fast paced film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, with plenty of action with more than ample doses of comedy sprinkled about to break the tension. It marked Nicholas Cage's debut as an action hero and, frankly, is the first film in which I actually enjoyed his performance. As always, Sean Connery is fantastic as a British agent (reprising ole' 007 himself?) secretly imprisoned by the US for 30 years due to his theft of the US' deepest and darkest secrets and who is released from prison due to his extensive knowledge of the underground tunnels on Alcatraz. A strong performance is also turned in by Ed Harris as the renegade general who steals several rockets armed with a nerve agent who takes hostages at Alcatraz and threatens the whole Bay area unless his demands are met. It is one helluva ride and highly recommended as a film.

VIDEO: 4 stars out of 5
The Blu-ray video is presented in 1080p and is a noticable improvement over the prior DVD releases including the excellent reissue by Criterion several years ago. The image is clear with no discernible artifacting visible. The colors are excellent as are the fleshtones. The pictures are detailed without evidence of edge enhancement. The only quibble I have with the transfer is the presence of some noise visible in the shadows and darker scenes. However, the noise is not visible at normal viewing distances and hardly distracted from my enjoyment of the film. Overall, this is a very good video transfer and the best that this film has ever looked in the home environment.

AUDIO- 4 1/2 stars out of 5
Presented in uncompressed PCM 5.1 audio as well as standard Dolby Digital 5.1, the soundtrack rocks and is a huge improvement over its DVD counterpart. The car chase scene near the beginning of the film is outstanding with cars whizzing across the room front to back and side to side with explosions and car crashes aplomb. The surrounds are used aggressively as is the subwoofer. If you want to demo your sound system, use the car chase scene and crank it up! Scenes like this scene is why we invest in this little hobby of ours.

The Rock is available from the UK through Amazon.uk. It is not region coded and will play on all Blu-Ray players. It is my understanding that a domestic release is planned for later this year as well as in Japan. Highly recommended.

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