Rock

Year: 1996

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Bay

Review

borrows from films all over the place – die hard, lethal weapon, james bond films, indiana jones and the temple of doom, reservoir dogs, and more. the direction is most like john mctiernan’s work circa 1989…that’s not to say it’s as good, but it’s a more contemporary version of it. as bad as mctiernan ended up being later on (see the remake of rollerball), his earlier work really set the standard for hollywood action films. as for this film…it’s one of the better action films of recent years. it’s well directed and written, the performances are strong and it doesn’t get weepy at the end. action and comic relief are well-balanced and the action sequences don’t feature any stylistic attempts at originality (ala behind enemy lines, among others). with a film like this it’s often just as much about what is absent as what is present. a strong film.