The Rock: Criterion Edition (1996) DVD Review – UK

When a decorated US Marine general takes a group of tourists hostage on Alcatraz and threatens San Francisco with deadly nerve gas, only two people can save the day - a chemical weapons specialist and the only man ever to escape from the Rock.

Last visited

22 Sep 2026 (6 days ago)

Total visits

644

Recommended

Runtime

2 Hours 16 Minutes

Region

Region 1

Sound

Dolby Digital 5.1

Aspect

2.35:1

Release year

1996

Details

When highly decorated US Marine General Francis Hummel grows tired of seeing the sacrifices of men killed during covert military operations ignored by their government, he decides to take matters into his own hands. Together with a group of loyal Marines, Hummel steals a stockpile of deadly VX nerve gas rockets and heads for San Francisco with a rather unusual compensation claim in mind.

There's probably no better place to hold out than the supposedly impenetrable former prison of Alcatraz, better known as "the Rock", and with plenty of tourists visiting the island Hummel has a ready supply of hostages. His demands are simple - the families of soldiers killed during secret operations are to receive $100 million in compensation from a government slush fund. If the authorities fail to comply, Hummel threatens to launch his rockets into San Francisco and kill thousands of innocent people.

With time rapidly running out, the FBI turns to chemical weapons specialist Dr. Stanley Goodspeed, whose knowledge of VX makes him essential to neutralising the rockets. Unfortunately, getting inside Alcatraz without Hummel noticing presents another problem. For that they need John Patrick Mason, a mysterious former British intelligence operative who has spent decades imprisoned without trial and who also happens to be the only man ever to have successfully escaped from the Rock.

Goodspeed and Mason join a team of Navy SEALs tasked with infiltrating the island through the old underground tunnels, rescuing the hostages and disarming the rockets before the deadline expires. However, once the operation begins to unravel, the unlikely pair find themselves largely on their own, with San Francisco's survival resting in the hands of a laboratory scientist who has never fired a gun and a rather reluctant former prisoner who has absolutely no intention of going back to jail.

Picture & Sound

The picture is bright and colourful with some excellent colour tones and an above-average bit-rate throughout the film. Detail is generally very good and the transfer copes particularly well with the numerous dark interiors and gloomy tunnels beneath Alcatraz. There are occasional signs of artifacting, especially when steam or smoke fills the picture, along with the odd dust speck on the print, but these are relatively minor complaints. Nevertheless, this is still a superb effort and a noticeable improvement over the previous releases.

The sound is excellent and it's wonderful to have both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS soundtracks to compare on an all-action film such as this. There is actually very little to separate the two competing formats, with both offering superb steering, plentiful use of the surround channels and enough low-frequency activity to give the subwoofer a thoroughly enjoyable workout.

Gunfire, explosions, helicopters and the numerous action sequences fill the room, whilst the atmospheric interiors of Alcatraz provide plenty of opportunity for more subtle surround effects. Dialogue remains crisp and clear throughout and Hans Zimmer and Nick Glennie-Smith's pounding score sounds absolutely magnificent. Mind you, whenever Dolby Digital and DTS are both provided, I'll still instinctively reach for the DTS soundtrack.

Menu & Extras

The menu is rather disappointing, with only a token effort made at animation, although the accompanying score is suitably effective. However, it's difficult to be too picky about the menu system when there are extras galore - so many, in fact, that they require a second disc.

The feature-length audio commentary brings together Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris and contains plenty of interesting information about the production. The second disc then digs much deeper into the making of the film, with material covering everything from the dive sequence and special effects to Hollywood gunplay, production design and the real history of Alcatraz.

Some of the documentary material can feel a little like filler designed to justify the second disc, but there's still an impressive amount to work through. The storyboards, production drawings and stills are worthwhile additions, whilst the excerpts from Secrets of Alcatraz provide some interesting background to the film's famous location. There's even another appearance from those surprisingly useful colour bars for correctly setting up your display.

The outtakes are probably the most entertaining part of the second disc. You just have to see Ed Harris losing his temper during one of his scenes and taking his frustrations out on a telephone. He certainly looks like a man you wouldn't want to annoy after a difficult day's filming! Things are rounded off with the theatrical trailer, television spots and footage from the film's world premiere on Alcatraz itself.

Overall

Hollywood seems unable to make many decent action films these days but, fortunately, The Rock is most definitely one of them. Michael Bay may not be known for subtlety, but here his frantic visual style is perfectly suited to a Jerry Bruckheimer action spectacular. Once the story reaches Alcatraz the pace rarely lets up, yet there's enough character and humour between the explosions to prevent the whole thing becoming just another mindless action film.

The inspired pairing of Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage is a large part of the reason it works so well. Connery is effortlessly charismatic as Mason, delivering sarcastic one-liners with the sort of ease you'd expect from a man who knows a thing or two about playing a British secret agent. Cage, meanwhile, is wonderfully twitchy and nervous as Goodspeed, a man considerably more comfortable handling chemical weapons in a laboratory than being shot at by heavily armed Marines. Putting the two together creates an unlikely partnership that provides some genuinely funny moments amongst all the gunfire.

However, Ed Harris arguably gives the film considerably more depth than you'd expect from this sort of blockbuster. General Hummel isn't simply another deranged villain threatening to destroy a city for money. His grievance is understandable and his motivation comes from genuine anger over the treatment of soldiers who died carrying out missions their government refuses to acknowledge. That doesn't exactly excuse pointing VX rockets at San Francisco, but it does make him a considerably more interesting adversary than the usual collection of megalomaniacs.

There's certainly no shortage of action. From the wonderfully excessive car chase through San Francisco to the infiltration of Alcatraz and the increasingly frantic attempts to disarm the rockets, the film hardly gives you time to catch your breath. The excellent cast, memorable dialogue and superb musical score simply add to the entertainment. It's big, noisy, completely over the top and enormous fun - exactly what a summer action film should be.

As for the DVD, this Criterion Edition finally gives The Rock the treatment it deserves. The original Region 1 edition was disappointing and the Region 2 flipper wasn't exactly something to get excited about either. Here we get an excellent transfer, superb Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks and enough supplementary material to occupy a second disc. Whether every extra is essential is debatable, but there's certainly no shortage of material.

This two-disc set is an absolute bargain and fans of action films or Jerry Bruckheimer should definitely buy it. Even if you were one of the unfortunate people who bought the sub-standard original Region 1 edition, or worse still the Region 2 flipper, you should seriously consider binning it and buying this instead. A cracking film finally gets the cracking DVD release it deserves. Highly recommended.