Very entertaining action hokum that benefits hugely from the uses made of the three stars.

| Jun 14, 2022

There isn't a shot, scene or sequence in The Rock that doesn't move furiously, typically with colored lights flashing into our faces or onto those of the actors.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 27, 2014

You might need to take Dramamine before entering a Michael Bay movie. The one-time music-video director has an annoying habit of finding the tightest shots, editing the heck out of them and scoring the works to loud music.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 27, 2014

For action-adventure fans, it just doesn't get any better than The Rock.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 27, 2014

Since the plot is ridiculous, The Rock works best when it's most light-hearted.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 27, 2014

If it's not the most awful thing I've ever seen, it's close enough to make me wince.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 27, 2014

The borrowings from other movies, going all the way back to the car chase in 1968's Bullitt, are heavy. But Bay has three leads to lend weight and dimension to characters who are hardly original and flatly written.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 27, 2014

The yarn has its share of gaping holes and jaw-dropping improbabilities, but director Michael Bay sweeps them all aside with his never-take-a-breath pacing.

Full Review | Mar 26, 2009

Slick, brutal and almost human, this is the team-spirit action movie Mission: Impossible should have been.

| Sep 19, 2008

Entertaining action, nothing more nor less.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2006

Fake countdown and knowing reactionary tone, but the best SF car chase to date.

| Jun 24, 2006

Even for adults, the movie's a violence-intoxicated, far-fetched, morally corrupt drama that sinks like a... you know.

| Jun 11, 2002

From a helicopter's point-of-view, The Rock is just typical big American dumb fun. It's only when you look underneath at the film's underlying assumptions that you want to recoil.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 12, 2002

A popcorn-movie deluxe.

| May 12, 2001

Slick and forceful, largely unconcerned with character, eager for any opportunity to pump up the volume both literally and metaphorically, The Rock is the kind of efficient entertainment that is hard to take pleasure in.

| Feb 14, 2001

Pure why-not bravado, pumped-up and staggeringly dishonest but exciting just the same.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

The Rock is the Guy Movie to end all Guy Movies, a ridiculously overblown summer testosterone blowout right down to the Wagnerian strains of the soundtrack and its stunningly high body count. It's also a hell of a lot of fun.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

A first-rate, slam-bang action thriller with a lot of style and no little humor.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Cage steals the show, adding a touch of wimpiness to the high-decibel bravado.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Ultimately, the movie deteriorates into a long commercial for the home-game version of itself.

| Jan 1, 2000