Starring:	Sean Connery	131min
	Nicolas Cage
	Ed Harris	1996
Screenplay:	David Wesiberg, Douglas S Cook	Action
	& Mark Rosner
Director:	Michael Bay	Colour

Region	2	Studio:	Buena Vista
Format	Double Sided, Single Layer	Subtitles	English
	(movie on 2 sides)		English Closed Captions
Aspect ratio	2.35:1		French
			Dutch
Anamorphic	Yes
Soundtracks	Dolby Digital 5.1	Extra Features
	French Dolby Digital 2.0
	Italian Dolby Digital 2.0	Case type	Amaray

The DVD * *		The Movie * * * *
This is how you make a Disney DVD. First, remove any extras. Second, make sure the film goes out of sync a bit. Thrid, take the credits off the running time, divide by two, get out a meat cleaver and simply chop the whole thing in half to the nearest second, slapping a piece on each side of the disc. Lovely jubbly! Okay, the good news - this is the best picture from Disney yet - really good colours and barely an artifact in sight. This looks like a full anamorphic transfer from film at last - either it is, or the bit rate is high enough to paper over the cracks. It looks absolutely superb. The sound never goes too far out of sync either, which is good by Disney standards. It's not rock solid (ahem), but it never goes beyond "did that look a bit strange?" into "what language was this filmed in, again?" Again though, something odd seems to have happened to the dynamics, with some wham-bam sequences crushed and others strangely loud. Not sure what's happened there. But really, these side changes are a horrid joke. Right in the middle of an action sequence - no fade out or caption as even ITV would do, just an abrupt black screen and silence. Eventually the bizarre graphic of a whirling hand appears. For a high profile action release, this just ain't good enough, though you are at least warned about it on the packaging, unlike on Face/Off. It's a shame, because otherwise this would be Disney's first fully respectable region 2 DVD. At least, in their own way, you feel that they are getting better.		America is, of course, renowned for it's theme parks. But The Rock demonstrates that Disneyland, Universal and Wet 'n Wild have a hot new contender - Alcatraz. Ed Harris is holding the US government to ransom with his biological weapons, set up on the ex-prison and aimed at sunny San Francisco. A crack government team is dispatched, but after all these years Alcatraz is still as inpenetrable as ever, as this time it's - hey! - stopping people getting in. The team includes FBI Chemical expert and Volvo driver Cage, and Connery - a man who doesn't officially exist and the only person to escape the prison in the bad old days. If things are a bit patchy up until this point (what on earth is going on in the car chase?), the fun starts on the island. Cage and Connery have a right old laugh killing bad guys, and this is where "Alcatraz - The Ride!" comes in. Old mining trains, suspended cable-car cages, rotating hammers and firebursts are just some of the hitherto unknown thrills that would have been available to all the inmates. Why, it's the happiest place on earth! It's tremendous nonsense, and the bonus is that Ed Harris has an above average and interesting bad guy to portray. Since all this is supposed to take place out of the public's eye, it's odd that no-one seems to notice that the zillion-trips-a-day tourist boats are gathering barnacles back at the pier. Still, who cares about the plot? Can I have another go?