The Rock: An Analysis

The Rock!

Michael Bay directs. Hans Zimmer does the music.

It's a movie about...uh, can anyone summarize the plot of the movie in coherent sentence?

No, no one can. That's ok, because the movie stars Nick Cage as a chemical weapons expert (what?) and Sean Connery as himself. Alright. The film also features Ed Harris, and that doctor guy from Scrubs. Yeah, it's pretty awesome.

What is The Rock? I'm not sure, they say the name "rock" several throughout the film. It's obviously a symbolic word. Perhaps it reflects the rock that hollywood was entering when this blockbuster was released. It feels extremely cliche, yet I feel this film embraces every cliche the hollywood film book has to offer.

It's the movie that jumpstarted that girl from Meet Joe Black's career. It cemented Michael Bay's role in hollywood. It feels like a prequel to Entrapment. And Gone in 60 seconds. Which paved the way for "Fast Furious". This is a very influential film. It stars Nick Cage. Hey, Face Off!

But after all is said, I've immediately lost interest. I mean, I get it, the rock. San Francisco. Stuff. Is Ed Harris a bad guy? Yes. What else? who cares.

Terminator 2 is on the other channel! Wow, thank god. Terminator 2. A beautiful movie. Do I need to explain why this movie is so great? I can't. I'm drunk, but I love this movie. A truly great movie. Why does the T-1000 walk so slowly? It doesn't matter. This movie rocks, and Arnold gives a thumbs up as his character is being disintegrated by molting hot lava. Wow.

So what is the point of writing about this? Nothing. But I think we can all watch both of these movies and appreciate their place in history and movie making history. The fact that somehow out there took the time to make these movies, one being objectively more brilliant than the other, puzzles me. Movies are made to make money. How do we maximize the amount of money that they can make? Well, many ways, I suppose. But to make a film that gives us, the audience, a thumbs up, is pretty cool.