I didn't really expect to like this movie. The story is a variation on a common theme (limited time to do xyz to save innocent people, experts who happen to be really good-looking come in and yada yada yada overcome the odds blah blah blah), and I'm really not giving many points for originality just because it took place on Alcatraz. The world is a big place; it doesn't take a lot of creativity to think of someplace new for the explosions to take place. I started out being a bit impressed that it wasn't the standard good-guys against bad-guys (more like good-guys again good-guys) but then they had to mess it up later in the movie (I don't think that's giving too much away but if you disagree with me, sorry). I also found a bunch of the scenes very far fetched (In an action movie? Who would have believed it?). At one point in the movie Goodspeed is yelling at Mason not to move while he's holding the chemicals because he'll kill them all. Later on, he's rolling around and being shot at while he's holding one of the little chemical balls, but lo and behold it doesn't go off.

The only thing that saves this movie is the acting of Connery, Cage, and Harris. I thought they were all charming, especially Ed Harris, who really did a good job of conveying the character of a decent guy feeling forced to do a bad thing. If the stars were people like Sylvester Stallone or Jean-Claude Van Damme, I probably would have been forced to trash the entire thing, but the acting in this movie raises my rating to average.