| If you like gunplay, especially well-executed and original looking gunplay, well, John Woo is your man and Face/Off is your movie. I enjoyed this a lot more than Woo's Broken Arrow by the simple virtue that it had a really interesting story and you never knew where it was going to turn next. The movie is stuffed with plot, and crammed with Nicholas Cage and John Travolta doing what they do best, which is inhabiting a character (well, two characters each) and having the time of their life doing so. |
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There is a ton of gunplay, did I mention that? I tend to find firestorm type shoot-em-ups boring, but this was different. To say more would require delving into plot and I don't want to ruin anything for anyone. The preview ruins very little for us. Joan Allen, still haunted by the spirit of Goody Proctor, turns in a nice performance as The Good Guy's Wife, as well as Gina Gershon (but not until well into the 2nd reel) as...? Go to the bathroom before it starts, it runs something like 2 hrs and 20 minutes |
| If you don't like John Woo movies (the slo-mo bad guys, sunlight flashing dramatically off sunglasses, etc.), well, you still might like this one. The bad guy slo-mo shtick was stupid to me in Broken Arrow but fit its subjects better here. |
| From a medical standpoint, Face/Off is wildly improbable (I mean, just look at the SIZE of Travolta's SKULL!) but at the same time uniquely fascinating. It's not for the squeamish, and you should have a sense of humor going in, because these bad guys are greatly funny and the good guys are pretty silly too! Hong Kong filmmakers are breathing new life into the genre for us Americans who think we want to see Batman and Robin or Speed 2. (yuck) |
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Woo throws us climax after climax, just like all the other action movies this summer, but his actually seemed to be building toward something and towards an actual payoff, rather than just BLAM for BLAM's sake. A strange little actor plays Pollux Troy, the brother of Castor Troy, and they are the bad guys. I wish I knew his name but he was like the Anti-Niles Crane to Troy's Anti-Frasier. I won't say any more! Just go see it! |
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I hope you all enjoy it, I know I did. Nicholas Cage is so perfect for this kind of stuff - who says you have to do only Merchant Ivory films after an Oscar win?
Pay full price.
karina |
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