Face/Off (1997)
A movie review by Michael J. Legeros Copyright 1997 by Michael J. Legeros
(Paramount)
Directed by John Woo
Written by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary
Cast John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Gina Gershon,
Alessandro Nivola, Dominique Swain, Nick Cassavetes,
Harve Presnell, Colm Feore, Margaret Cho
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for violence and language)
Running Time 140 minutes
Reviewed at Carmike 7 Cinemas, Raleigh, NC (27JUN97)
==
Dis/appointing. The talkiest thrill-ride of the summer stars John Travolta and Nicholas Cage, as two guys who swap faces. Literally. Cage plays a terrorist and Travolta plays a terrorist tracker and each ends up with the other's face, and identity, through a series of events that writers Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, along with director John Woo (BROKEN ARROW, HARD TARGET), take great pains to make believable. They explain the entire medical process and how the facial skin is re- moved and what's done about scars, hair lines, and body fat. Surpris- ingly, this premise-- set in the near-future, if that helps-- is one of the more *plausible* components of the movie. It's so utterly over-the- top that it blends perfectly with the accompanying action, Action a la Woo, a gracefully choreographed carnival of all things flinging, flying, shooting, and exploding. What's much more *difficult* to believe are the smaller, subsequent story details, ranging from the circumstances surrounding a character's heart attack to a wife who fails to notice a scar that her husband no longer has. (Not to mention other physical differences that are never, ah, expanded upon!)
Those only familiar with the John Woo of BROKEN ARROW are in for a treat, as the world-renowned director is almost back to his old self. I say, I say, *almost*. He's returned to the world of Grand Guignol, but without enough lighting! Three, maybe, four sequences are damn diffi- cult to follow, shot for shot. (From what I recall of his more-recent HARD TARGET and HARD BOILED, the photography was much... cleaner.) Worse, there isn't *enough* action to keep these pulpy characters in- teresting. (At least an hour passes without any gun battles, which is a l-o-n-g time to spend with Cage's good guy, all stooped shoulders and stupored stares.) That said, there's still enough here to satisfy most moviegoers. The surgery sequence is an armrest gripper. The body count is refreshingly high. Travolta is wicked fun playing Cage's character playing Travolta's. Olivia Newton-John sings "Over the Rainbow." And two late sequences-- a Mexican standoff in a church (complete with flut- tering white doves) and a high-speed powerboat chase (is there any other kind?)-- bring everything home. For those fast, furious, fleeting moments, it's why we go to the movies. (Rated "R"/140 min.)
Grade: B
-- Mike Legeros - Movie Hell http://www.nonvirtual.com/hell/
-- Mike Legeros Corporate Training SAS Institute Inc, Cary, NC, USA, Earth mailto: legeros@unx.sas.com (w) legeros@pagesz.net (h) "Fortissimo at last!" - Gustav Mahler, on seeing Niagara Falls
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