Review of Rock, The

Video

The Rock is presented in widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The video quality was good on the whole although I did notice several screen flashes which seem to be evident from this distributers DVDs (Warner) as this occured on their Air Force One and Jackie Brown releases. I have not experienced this on other DVDs. On occasion the picture can get a tad dark, although the colours are rich and not overly saturated.

Audio

A typical Jerry Bruckheimer this - loads of explosions and loud bits! The 5.1 soundtrack is good with effective use of the front and rear channels. The subwoofer channel is put through it`s paces especially during the (many) machine gun sequences and explosions. The music is very atmospheric, and is one on the few audio film soundtracks I own on CD cos I enjoyed it as music in its own right.

Features

This disk has no extras. It is also one of the dreaded `flipper` titles that we hope will be non existant soon with new Region 2 releases. The flip point is also positioned in a stupid place - right in the middle of a scene. Was no thought put into this? Why not put it at the beginning or end of the scene? This gives the impression the DVD was thrown together in as quick a time as possible just to start raking the readies in. Hopefully this is one of the `old type` of Region 2s, the newer titles seem to be attempting to bridge the gap in quality between us and our US friends - Shakespeare in Love, Ronin, Dracula and Enemy of the State being two recent Region 2 titles that are known to be a better disk that the Region 1 version.

Conclusion

I like these action movies and although The Rock satisfies this urge in me when choosing a DVD (love the wrecking the Ferrari scene!) sometimes the acting can be a little suspect. It is a fast moving film and Connery steals several scenes and the best lines. The fact that it is a flipper with no extras means it is going to score quite low, but hopefully film companies will learn from this and output more quality Region 2 disks.