Bayaction time!
A general is fed up with marines dying and the American military complex not honoring them, so he takes matters into his own hands, and also takes Alcatraz. Up against him is one SEAL team (expendable), one retired SAS soldier, and one chemical superfreak. No problem, eh?
Another movie where the bad guy has clear motivations, so it isn't all so clear cut how it should pay out. However, it's somewhat undercut by the men under him going "yeah, I just want my money" so we do get clear cut bad guys to get exploded. And if the script wasn't so against them, they might have just pulled it off.
Connery and Cage get most of the credit here, of course, although I could do with dialing Cage down several notches. But Harris and Morse give better performances as men who know what they are doing is wrong, but are going to do it anyway... until the time comes when they can't. Masterful tension there.
And the soundtrack.... is just fantastic. Great score by Zimmer, just trumpets and guitars to stir the heart and make it pound, and then a flute track that wouldn't be out of place on the softer moments of Lord of the Rings.
There's only one film that can beat it on sound...
