CONNERY, CAGE HELP DELIVER `ROCK'-SOLID ENTERTAINMENT.

Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Film Critic

In ``The Rock,'' convict-on-the-lam Sean Connery, mythologized as the only prisoner ever to have escaped from Alcatraz, accosts his daughter in a San Francisco park and tries to convince the terrified young woman that he's not as evil as she must think.

Right about then, a battalion of police cars shows up, sirens blaring, to recapture him. Sympathetic FBI agent Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) steps out from his hiding place. ``Your father's working with us,'' he tells the young woman, whose disappointed look is killing Connery. ``He's helping us resolve a dangerous situation.''

Connery, dignity preserved, thanks Cage as soon as they're out of the daughter's sight. Cage lets loose with a blistering barrage of expletives to thank Connery for nearly getting him killed in a horrific, ``Speed''-style car chase 10 minutes earlier.

It's a pretty good example of the humanizing give-and-take between the two top actors, which gives ``The Rock'' a buoyancy that places it a cut above the standard summer slugfest and hardware show from producers Jerry Bruckheimer and the late Don Simpson.

It's no surprise that director Michael Bay (``Bad Boys'') can make a slick, brutal action film that mixes deft humor with the explosions and carnage; what's impressive is how much suspense he can sustain and still leave room for some creative showboating by his well-cast leads.

From a clever original screenplay by David Weisberg, Douglas S. Cook and Mark Rosner, ``The Rock'' is for the most part, uncommonly taut and entertaining. Even the filmmakers' worst excesses - which unbalance the movie in its final reels with a pulverizing overflow of destruction and violence - can't obliterate its racy appeal.

Cage, cast as an action hero, uses the crazed gleam in his eye and his unpredictable nervous energy to play against type as a brainy, Beatles-loving chemical weapons whiz who pukes into a sink when he learns the true nature of his dangerous mission. He's supposed to infiltrate a terrorist takeover of the former federal prison at Alcatraz and dismantle deadly rockets armed with poison gas.

Connery, as the only man who can lead the way, counters Cage's rants with dry humor and restraint. Both of them seem to be having fun, and it's infectious. A former British spy (James Bond, perhaps?) who's been in a maximum-security U.S. prison since the days when people in San Francisco were putting flowers in their hair, Connery has no reason to help the feds except for his confidence that he can quickly escape from them - which he does, early in the movie.

Recaptured, he guides an underwater incursion of Alcatraz against a group of angry Marines led by Gen. Hummel (Ed Harris), a super patriot who's angry at the government for betraying the soldiers and ripping off their families.

In one of the movie's best and tensest scenes, the Navy SEALs confront the Marine terrorists in a standoff that pretty much sums up many post-Cold War plots, in which internal dissent is the new national threat. Bloody carnage ensues.

Harris (``Apollo 13''), who manfully overcomes some clunker dialogue at the outset, brings depth and even sympathy to his role as a villain who believes he has a good cause.

Bay, who for most of his career has directed prize-winning commercials and music videos, employs a showy, hyperkinetic camera style and thrives on sucker-punch nastiness and gore, as in a scene where a baby doll spews devastating poison gas from its mouth.

But for all of its brutality, the movie has a playfulness that's winning when it's allowed to break through. It's not art, but it's entertainment. Much of the time, ``The Rock'' rolls.

THE FACTS The film: ``The Rock'' (R; graphic violence).

The stars: Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, William Forsythe, David Morse.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Michael Bay. Screenplay by David Weisberg, Douglas S. Cook and Mark Rosner, based on a story by David Weisberg and Douglas S. Cook.

Running time: Two hours, nine minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three Stars.

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Photo: Sean Connery, center, mythologized as the only priso ner ever to have escaped from Alcatraz, leads an anti-terrorist mission at the former federal prison in ``The Rock.''