The Rock - DisneyCember 

"Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and F the prom queen." -One of Sean Connery's best lines ever.

This is the best Michael Bay movie, having Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery have strong chemistry in this movie.

Ed Harris’ character, General Hummel, to me is one of the best (if not the best) anti-villains ever made in media. He’s not evil just to be evil, he’s a man of honor who has lost good men he fought with in various conflicts and despises how the government he’s spent decades serving completely throws them under the bus and denies their family compensation. Even by going through the normal channels, Hummel, isn’t able to get through to the higher ups. It’s when he visits his wife’s grave where he makes his ultimate decision as she was his rock that kept him from making rash decisions. Hummel knows that what he does from that point on is wrong, and he’s not proud of it either. But he would much rather die than not see the legacy of his fallen soldiers honored. Throughout the film, you see how even in situations, like the shower room for instance, you see how he still acts honorable by ordering his men to cease fire, showing how he never intended to harm or kill anyone during his mission on Alcatraz, that it was all a scare tactic from the start. Unfortunately, his honor was his biggest weakness to see how other men in his unit like Captains Darrow and Fyre cared more about getting their cut of the pay, leading to mutiny later and ultimately his death. You understand completely his motivation, his goal and the actions he made. And while they might be extreme in some case, Hummel still has the characteristics of what makes a phenomenal anti-villain!

This is one of the few movies where Nick Cage was outdone by another actor

Cage, Connery, and Harris are fantastic in this. And General Hummel is a very sympathetic villain. This film is so much fun.

Everybody is always praising Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Michael Bay in this movie but for me the best character and overall finest performance in the movie is by Ed harris. The man did a solid job as the bad guy, you can actually understand why he is upset and he was so convincing and great that in my opinion was one of the best performances of his career

I can buy the theory that Sean Connery's criminal character is really James Bond.

The action genre in the 90s was obsessed w/ Die Hard scenarios: Speed, Cliffhanger, Air Force One, Broken Arrow, Under Siege, etc... But what helps this film stand out is that it feels like a crossover between the three main characters. Goodspeed, Mason, & Hummel could've easily carried their own movies. Not to mention that it's part of the Nicolas Cage 90s action trilogy, the other two being Con Air & Face/Off. Also, great score by Nick Glennie-Smith w/ a main theme by Hans Zimmer. The soundtrack's producer, Harry Gregson-Williams, later worked on the Metal Gear Solid franchise and you can definitely hear the influence from this film.

VX nerve agent is indeed real. In college I did a research paper on it for biochemistry. The only thing it doesnt do is melt your skin off. Plus, VX has a consistency more like motor oil and is fairly sticky.

On the 15th day of disneycember the critic gave for me: 15 loosers that whine about their "best" 14 cheating angels 13 quatum bugs 12 killing sprees 11 pinky animals 10 boring ghosts 9 Web abilities 8 DEAAAAD PEOPLEEEEEEE 7 lost children You know this should have beeing the fourth day since how can i say theres "6 elements"? FIVE NEW CONTINENTS 4 Stars of wishes 3 Broken spells 2 Swapping places And a weird videogame movie for me

A film that totally ROCKS !!!

A GOOD Michael Bay movie!?!? I'm f**king dying.*AUUUUUUUCK* Me f**king heart stopped!*AUUUUUUUUUCK*

This movie is definitely one of my favorite action films & I even like the theory that Sean Connery’s character is 007

I love The Rock, it's legitimately one of my favorite movies of all time. I rewatch it from time to time and it has really stood the test of time, it's still a fun movie even 27 years later.

Ed Harris as General Frank Hummel is one of the greatest, and most sympathetic villains ever put on screen. Honestly, you totally root for the guy. And Gregory Sporleder and Tony Todd as the psychotic Captains Frye and Darrow, the true villains of the movie, are so over the top and fun, I cannot get enough of them.

A Scott, a Cage and a Bay perfectly alligned here to give us pure joy.

This is a good film. The "Prom Queen" line is awesome yet funny.

Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery in a cool/fun Michael Bay action film in the 90s? AWESOME!

Not gonna lie but also Michael Biehn was great in this movie, I always forget my man from Terminator, Tombstone, The Abyss, Aliens & Cherry Falls was in this movie. He did a solid job even if was a minor role

On the 15th day of disneycember my critic gave to me 15 Shaun Cages 14 cheesy sports 13 quantum realms 12 underappreciated masterpieces 11 rescued movies 10 sleeping ghosts 9 definitive interpretations 8 scary M Nights 7 live action reboots 6 elements dating 5 ice ages drifting 4 foul wishes 3 amitys blushing 2 marvelous failures And mario and luigi plumning by a pair tree

Michael Biehn's "Stand FAST" argument is under rated.

One of the very few Bayverse films that I like.

The best thing about this movie is that it has this tie-in theory that really works in a surprising way. The theory goes that Mason, Connery's character, is actually Connery's James Bond. If you take all the Sean Connery Bond films and then The Rock, the timeline actually works really well between them. Doubly so if you go by the other theory that Bond is a code name shared by multiple agents throughout the series rather than being the same man over and over played by different actors. Everything about Mason's backstory perfectly matches up to Connery's run as Bond, right down to his final appearance lining up with when Mason was finally imprisoned.

This one works better than other Michael Bay films because it’s more of a Jerry Bruckheimer film. If you look at the other Simpson/Bruckheimer productions of the 90s, the template for the color palette and basic visual style was already set by Bruckheimer and Tony Scott. Even Con Air, directed by Simon West visually looked like it could have been a continuation of The Rock. Bay has more kinetic energy and movement than Scott did at the time, but he’s definitely coloring within the lines. And this is the last of their collaborations where Bay wasn’t left to his own devices, with Bruckheimer getting script, casting, and editing approval and setting the limits for the size and amounts of explosions. I think Bay works best with limits. Even his recent stuff like Pain and Gain and Ambulance worked for the most part. It’s when producers tell him “Here’s $200 million and all the gasoline and gunpowder you want. Do whatever you want” that the flicks take a nose dive.

The Best Michael Bay movie he’s ever directed and one of my Favorite Action Films with Nicolas Cage alongside FACE/OFF.

Still in my opinion one of the best action movies ever

Oh, this movie is a real classic, one of the best of 1996.

Now do a nostalgia critic video on this movie please

This is one of the best if not the best Michael Bay movie ever made.

This movie has one of the best supporting casts ever. David Morse, Bookem Woodbine, John C. McGinely, Michael Beihn, Tony Todd, holy hell 1:45 the Broderick hate never sleeps, lol

What I love about this movie is the Composer is the same one who went on to make Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3.

Huh. THE ROCK counts as a Disney movie now. Because they own the movie's producer (Hollywood Pictures) and distributer (Buena Vista). Hollywood also made TOMBSTONE and JUDGE DREDD, so I now expect Disneycember episodes about them soon. Me and my brother love this movie, and see its plot as inspiring that of the 1st METAL GEAR SOLID: a black-ops military unit made of psychopaths (who you can kind of see where they're coming from) hijacks an experimental superweapon, hole up on an island with hostages, make demands of a LARGE amount of money or else, and an expert at infiltration teams up with an unlikely scientist to stop them. Change. My. Mind.

One of the best movies of the 90’s!👍👍

"How... In the name of Zeus's B U T T H O L E did you get out of your cell?" - Nicolas Cage, 1996

On the Fifteenth day of Disneycember. The critic gave to me Fifteen Bay-isms Fourteen Cheesy Ball Games Thirteen Modok Assholes Twelve Violent Clone Wars Eleven Shape - Shifters Ten Boring Mansions Nine Canceled Spideys Eight Seeing Spirits Seven Dull Adventures Six Tempers Blowing Five Salty Sloths Four Kings To Vent To Three Cartoon Epics Two Singing Planets And a plumber from the 90's

I always loved thinking that Mason was, in fact, James Bond.

Michael Bay’s highest rated film

On the fifteenth day of DisneyCember, the critic gave to me: Fifteen Bio-Weapons Fourteen Guardian Angels Thirteenth Floating Heads Twelve Clone Troopers Eleven Anti-Heroes Ten Stretching Paintings Nine Battered Classics Eight Red Connections Seven Hollow Remakes Six Daddy Issues FIVE PREHISTORIC PIRATES !!! Four Wasteful Wishes Three Owl Beasts Two Marvel Trashes And a World of Dino People !

On the 15th day of disneycember, the critic gave to me. 15 bay explosions, 14 Home run Angels, 13 quantum realms, 12 Clones fighting, 11 Sci-Fi Knights, 10 Haunted Houses, 9 Spider Battles, 8 Ghosts observing, 7 magical pixies, 6 Fire and water Love Stories, 5 SPITING CONTINENTS, 4 wishing stars, 3 palisman, 2 marvelous disappointments And a goomba with a Human body!

I've seen more homages to The Rock in other media than how many times I've seen The Rock. I guess that's a testament to how good the movie was.

This is the best Michael Bay movie ever, and one of the best action movies of all time.

This is literally the very first R rated film he has done for his Disneycember reviews.

Do a Nostalga Critic Review for this.

The Rock has one of the best soundtracks of all time!!!

Credit where it's due, during the car chase scene there are pretty funny dialog interludes where Sean Connery's character has a phone conversation with the person whose car he stole so he can properly relay insurance info to them. It's nothing overwhelmingly clever but the nonchalant tongue in cheek nature of the exchange during such a high stakes point in the film adds the necessary humor to it.

Shower scene from this movie is spectacular. Harris villain is very good too. Connery plays old 007 here. I really like this movie. ;)

🎵Like a Rock! Ohhhh like a Rock!🎵

On the 15th day of Disneycember. The critic gave to me 15 Rocks 14 Angels 13 Failed Ants 12 Far Far Away Galaxies 11 Cool Redheads 10 Rebooted Mansions 9 Spectacular Spideys 8 Seeing Dead 7 Lost Boys 6 Elements Combining 5 Icy Adventures 4 Ok Wishes 3 Disney’s Best 2 Marvel Blounders And 1 Failed First Attempt

This is the movie I’ve seen more times than any other and it’s my number one. It was never going to win Oscar’s but it’s one hell of a fun ride. This is Michael Bay’s best work, aside from Bad Boys. He gave us a straight-up action movie without all the gimmicky special effects, like in the Transformers movies. Sean Connery is definitely the best actor here, though this was also Cage at his peak. Ed Harris is always enjoyable, and he plays this part to perfection.

On the 15th Disneycember, the critic gave y'all: 15 ROUNDS OF BAYHEM, 14 Holy fastball's, 13 Creepy M.O.D.O.K's, 12 Prequal's done right, 11 Hey! It's on Netflix! 10 Miscasted spook's, 9X better than Morbius 8 wields a Keyblade 7 Lost children 6 Missing elements 5 TEEN-AGE MAMMOTHS, 4 Ungranted wishes, 3 Disrespected seasons, 2 Extra Marvel's, & A movie that ain't no game!

I love this movie

This is my favourite guilty pleasure movies of all time. And the soundtrack, godammit. It's from freaking Hans Zimmer! You gotta NC this, Doug

This is Micheal Bays best movie by faaar, and one of my favorite action movies as well

One of my favorite movies!

One thing I like is when Mason comes back and says he can't swim yet sam there and away from there meaning he didn't want to lose face.

This one of my comfort Films. Soundtrack's amazing too, I think it was one of Hans Zimmer's early scores.

Those zooms XD

Saw my mom's VHS copy of this movie after watching Con Air the day before when I was a kid. XD

I never expected this movie to appear on Disneycember but it is one of the best if not the best Michael Bay movie ever made.

Yes that does exist was banned in the 90's

I put this film in the same category as National Treasure. The contents are entirely labeled on the tin, and it delivers what it promises.

Ed Harris was the REAL star of this movie!

The Rock is the Commando of the 90's, stupid as hell but a lot of fun.

On the fifteenth day of Disneycember Nostalgia Critic gave to me: 15 Bay explosions 14 baseball angels 13 floating eggheads 12 clones a-shooting 11 beast girls shifting 10 ghosts a-haunting 9 spideys swinging 8 - I mean, 6 senses 7 black fairies 6 fire people 5 acorn maps! 4 wishing stars 3 hooting owls 2 Khamala Khans And Mario and Luigi

I've always liked the fan theory that Sean Connery's character is secretly James Bond, but I didn't buy into it as it sounded a little too crazy to be true, not to mention different companies and all. But over the years and a few RU-vid videos later, I've actually become a true believer. I won't go into detail but apparently the timeline does add up with all that is presented to us in this film and if you only go by the Connery films (minus Never Say Never). Also, Michael Bay in the mid to late 90s was at the top of his A-game. He wasn't Academy Award-winning or anything, but the man was everything that the 90s was all about and he completely owned that time period. Both Bad Boys and Armageddon are among my top favorite guilty pleasures, along with this one at the top when it comes to Bay films.

That Elton John rocket man line is weirdly badass to me for some reason. 😂

I love how The Rock is unofficially Connery’s final Bond film

1:09 You get it, lol!. I was in the same boat, I can't remember the characters names, so I called by the actors 😂.

I honestly really liked Shia LaBeouf in the first Transformers film and most other movies I've seen him in (especially Surf's Up). I didn't mind him too much in the second film, but the third film was unbearable to the point where I walked out in the middle of it (but that wasn't entirely LaBeouf's fault so much as it was the plot and girlfriend that wasn't played by Megan Fox (honestly, Fox's character was probably my favorite human character in the films)).

According to many fan-theorists this is the final adventure of Sean Connery as 007/James Bond. I believe it.

This is one of the movies I’m surprised didn’t get a full review.

Fun fact. There's was another movie that was gonna be called The Rock, but because this movie took the title first it became the movie "Half Past Dead" featuring Steven Seagal and Ja Rule (an infamously bad movie). Similar storylines.

On the fifteenth day of Disneycember, my critic gave to me: Fifteen Explosions Fourteen Baseball Players Thirteen QuANTtic Heads Twelve Jedi Eleven Pink Animals Ten Spooky Ghosts Nine Supervillains Eight Haley Joel Osments Seven Lost Boys Six Fire Vixens FIVE PIRATE ANIMALS Four Wishing Stars Three eyed Queen Two alien cats And One Koopa with a M O N K E Y gun

I'm still waiting on some of my childhood movies like My Girl and The Sandlot. I'm pretty sure My Girl was released by Touchstone Pictures, which was a Disney property in the 90s. I had no idea that The Rock was made by a Disney subsidiary.

Now I want to watch this again 😂

THE BEST MICHAEL BAY MOVIE! I mean, Ed Harris' wife's headstone says 'His Wife'. Perfect. "There's something I've gotta do, Barb. Something I couldn't do while you were here. I tried... you know I tried everything and I still don't have their attention. Let's hope this elevates their thinking. But whatever happens... please don't think less of me". CHIIIIIILS everytime I watch it

This was actually one of the last movies to play at the old movie theater where I live. They moved to a larger building in a new location but the original location has been sitting vacant ever since it closed.

For the Record VX Nerve Gas is a thing and it's exactly portrayed correctly on its effects on a human being.

I’ll say this as a member of the Transformers fandom, god we’re sick of bad Bay movies even if we accept them as part of who we are. We just wish that Bay hadn’t tainted the perception of Transformers in the general public.

And also the many theories about Sean Connery's character actually being an aged James Bond makes a lot of sense if you look into it.

My brothers of OG Modern Warfare 2 know the Rock pretty much was the template for like half the missions of that game

"Your bescht?!" "Losers alwaysch whine about their bescht!" 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Forever 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

We may make fun of Michael Bay & Cage, but they fit like a glove here. It’s a fun action flick with memorable quips from Connery and some great set pieces. Gotta agree it’s Bay’s best movie though Ambulance is a close 2nd

I realized what I had with _The Rock_ immediately.

Honestly, this is basically the definition of a movie that objectively is nothing special, but the combination of the actors, the set pieces, and the environment make it a classic.

Pentex productions definitely convinced me that it is a bond farewell movie

I almost always confused this movie with CON AIR back in the day (and all the more shocked knowing now CON AIR wasn't a Michael Bay movie; it follows his formula to the tee). But this is probably my favorite Michael Bay film of them all (half the reason I enjoyed AMBULANCE is that it felt like a mix of this film and SPEED).

Thank god you came into this life to point out what the right and the wrong way is. What would we do without you.

Let me just share what my inner teenage said back in the day: The soundtrack for this movie KICKS ASS!

From what I've read, the vx gas is very accurate, aside from the skin boiling. Also Ed Harris helped to rework his original character to what we saw.

While Im not sure about the delivery/storage method, VX IS a real thing. It basically does do what Cages character describe, convulsions/vomiting/etc. Basically the movie version is 100% what VX does/is except for the corrosive part where it melts the guys skin off, and VX isnt a Gas but a rather thick Honey Consistency oil. Positive note is that there has been a effort to destroy all VX stockpiles in the world and as of December 2015 98% of all VX Gas has been destroyed.

I love this flick. I used to rattle the walls watching this on Laserdisc back in the day.

Michael Bays Best film , and Zimmers best score! The scene were Hummel literally goes out of his way to get the kids off the island - you know he might be the bad guy but right there you know he is a good guy at the end of the day. Mason calls it later in the film that hes a military man thats done horrible things...hes' not however a monster. - god this movie is epic! Also I do love how they spend so much time building up the seals..hell you have Biehn as the leader - - - THE PINNACLE seal in films(seriously those not familiar go count his IMDB playing a seal)...and what happens? They all get killed off. Why? There job is done - they got the two leads to the island. The movie is like an onion with multiple layers visible if you know were to look - add Bay's unique shooting style/shots scattered through this film and its a 10/10 easy in my book! Bad Boys is his best film? No WAY!

1:24 The Chef is Filipino and he is speaking in Tagalog. He just cursed Mason and said, "Animal! You're a SOB!"

The fan theory of it actually being James Bond is the best

First time I've heard about this and now I wanna watch this. 😎

Nicolas Cage and Michael Bay together should be a recipe for a hot mess, but this movie was pretty good

There's a fan theory that Sean Connery is playing the original James Bond who's been disgraced and has been placed in solitary confinment. He's forced to work with Nicolas Cage's character to get a pardon.

0:56 the weapon is VX gas. It is real and they did mention the one correct fact that it was a failed pesticide created in the early 50s. However they took liberties with it being corrosive in the film when it reality it isn’t. You die by asphyxiation which Cage’s character mentions.

this was Nic Cage’s big foray into action, and the first of what people now call his 90s action trilogy: The Rock, Con Air, and Face/Off