Michael Bay is often lambasted for being a terrible director, when in actuality it's probably more likely that he just chooses terrible scripts and has an awful sense of humour. Few can helm an action scene like Michael Bay can (or, at least that was the case before everything in his movies was made of CGI) and The Rock, which stars Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery (who both have other movies on this list, coincidentally), is testament to that. The Rock - which sees Sean Connery playing the only man to have ever broken out of Alcatraz who finds himself enlisted by the government to break back in to prevent a terrorist cell from launching a nuke - might very well be Michael Bay's best film. It's totally and utterly ridiculous, of course, but there's also something explosively poetic about it. For those who claim that Bay can't direct, then, point them to The Rock. It's almost annoying how entertaining this movie manages to be from start to finish. Also: it stars Ed Harris as the sympathetic bad guy, an addition that always makes a film worthwhile.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
