West and East in Face/Off
I'll admit I went for this one to discover America's fascination (Face/Off was a huge hit there) with the new director of reel action in Hollywood, John Woo. I thought, Singaporeans have had lots of cinexposure to Woo after his Chow Yuen Fatt movies, so for once the Americans are a step behind us in Western cinema. There still remains a lot to admire in Woo's latest action vehicle: the way Nicolas Cage (playing Castor Troy in a considerably better offering than his last, Con-Air) stepped out of his car to meet his brother, jacket blowing out behind him in the wind, and the segment where Troy, his nemesis Sean Archer (John Travolta) and their respective allies covered each other before bullets started firing off (and man, they have never gone off more spectacularly!). As the story went, supercop Archer and highvillian Troy exchange faces as the cop carries out a hare-brained scheme to foil an audacious bombing attempt. When Archer encounters the sin-streaked cronies of Troy in human friendship terms and Troy enters into Archer's family world pained and wrecked by his accidental killing of the latter's son 6 years ago, the line between good and evil is blurred. But where Woo's legendary A Better Tomorrow was the painful story of a hard man trying to find his way among other hard men, Face/Off lacks this crucial human element. Cage and Travolta come across simply as cool hitmen fighting off huge odds in traditional Hollywood style, instead of human beings struggling within a massive cobweb of human relations. Woo's trademarks of doves and two-handled gun-fighting bring to the Singaporean movie-goer fond memories of his past cinematic achievements more than offerings of stunning new innovations. With a collosal budget and a couple of megastars, John Woo had the idea of closing out the movie with more explosions, a high-speed boat chase and an excessively positive ending that is typically American. Chow Yuen Fatt never won that way. West has met East in this face-off, and we remain unsure which philosophy of life will in the end predominate over the other. Because beyond all the guns, melodrama and machismo, that's what the movie stands for: an interaction of two proud cultures. Grade: B+
check out other movie reviews below at the abode! -- perrin, perrin@cyberway.com.sg Perrin's Wayside Abode http://www.cyberway.com.sg/~perrin/
"I was so much older then I'm younger than that now" *dylan*
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