Face/Off

B

Directed by John Woo

John Woo's classic thriller (and Bernadette's favorite film) is vintage John Woo but with less gunfighting and more Nick Cage and John Travolta, botha of which are flaws that prevent it from reaching action greatness (in my book at least).

Nick Cage (ugh) plays international terrorist Castor Troy and John Travolta (ugh) plays his arch nemesis, FBI officer Sean Archer. When Archer finally nabs Troy after a botched escape attempt he and his family finally believe that their long history with Troy has come to an end. Not so, however, since Troy has hidden a bomb somewhere in L.A. whose location is known only by Troy's brother Pollux who is serving time in a maximum security prison on an offshore oil rig. In an effort to discover the whereabouts of the bomb, Archer agrees to a face transplant in order to assume the identity of Castor Troy. Things get only more ridiculous from this point onward.

I have a tendency to compare all of John Woo's action films to his masterpiece, "The Killer" and it compared to that movie, "Face/Off" sucks. But then again, compared to "The Killer" almost every action movie sucks, so I need to start getting my standards in order. As an action film "Face/Off" holds up quite well. It's smoothly paced and expertly directed by Woo who, according to the man himself, was given carte blanche by the studio heads in charge of the film to do whatever he wanted. The freedom given to Woo shows in the excess of some of the scenes which, rather than being a drawback, give the film the over the top aesthetic that is the hallmark of his films. The acting combo of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage is about as unappealing to me as any acting duo on the planet, I could hack their over the top, bloated performances surprisingly well, likely because the sour taste left by their presence in "Face/Off" was offset (to some degree) by Woo's direction. Man, do I hate those two.

One criticism I do have of "Face/Off," at least in comparison to Woo's better films, is the lack of gunplay. Woo's greatest strength, in my opinion at least, is his unsurpassed skill at pacing and choreographing gun fights. His classic works such as "The Killer," "A Better Tomorrow" and "Hardboiled" are all notable for their gunplay and I think that any Woo film that doesn't rely heavily on his talent for staging gun fights will never be able to reach the rarefied air of action bliss that is can be found in the aforementioned films. "Face/Off" spends a great deal of time plotting the cat and mouse game between Troy and Archer which was mostly time wasted in my book. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that "Face/Off" is an enjoyable piece of escapist film and it is likely Woo's most successful and entertaining American film.