Small wonder Sean Connery chose this heavy-duty action film.

It hands him a role tailor-made to his own brand of lethal charm.

Incensed by the government's refusal to compensate the families of those of his men killed in covert actions, General Hammond (Ed Harris) leads an elite band of Marine mercenaries to steal rockets armed with VX gas.

The gas will wipe out a large proportion of the American population unless $1million for each family, plus a million for each mercenary, is paid.

Enter Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage), an FBI chemical weapons ace entirely unused to any other kind of warfare; and Mason (Connery), a long-term prisoner who had done many years on (and escaped from) the island where the rockets, along with 81 hostages, now nestle: Alcatraz.

Stand well back from this combustible formula and let the action blast.

It's pretty well non-stop - and well-varied, from a San Francisco car chase, through a hectic monorail car ride, to the more conventional shoot-up stuff.

Nice ending too. Watch out for The West Wing's John Spencer as the FBI director.