Movie Reviewed: Face/Off
Director: John Woo
Date Reviewed: 4 February 2021
jamesintexas rating = *
I don't know what I was doing in 1997. That summer was after my freshman year at Kenyon College, I was working at the Elmhurst Park District Camp Adventure Seekers at Berens Park, planning my Eagle Scout ceremony, and definitely seeing movies. But not Face/Off. A touchstone of sorts (the poster and basic plot seem ingrained in my DNA despite not seeing it), the film captured a strange moment in time. John Travolta's second career resurgence (though for me, his career started with Look Who's Talking) had just occurred with Pulp Fiction in 1994, and Nicolas Cage had reached the apex with Leaving Las Vegas, quickly followed by The Rock, Con-Air, and this film. Both stars were shining brightly and united for this high-concept thriller. I guess. I was not thrilled. I do not think I would have been in 1997 either.
Starting with The Rock in 1996, I began to turn a bit on the soulless, mindless action films embodied by director Michael Bay. There was something excessively slick, dumb, and nihilistic about that film, and I had a reaction to mass (casual) carnage that spun me away from these types of films. Listening to Lindy West's new book about films from the 90's exposed this gap in my viewing, so I finally caught up with Face/Off. To sum up, there is nothing in Face/Off that is enjoyable or worthwhile, except, perhaps, the joke that it spawned in Melissa McCarthy's face off with Jason Statham in the marvelous and fun Spy.
Nicolas Cage is an uber-villain full of thrill and flair named Castor Troy with a penchant for licking people's faces and preening. The scenes of bug-eyed, over-the-top Cage are wonderful, and I'd much rather watch an entire film with that performance. FBI Agent Sean Archer aka John Travolta's son was the victim of Troy's botched attempt on his life, and the two men are headed on a collision course. Of course, there's a bomb with an extended countdown sequence that leads to the wonderfully silly use of the face/off technology to save the world. But the switcheroo leads to another crisscross when the faceless Troy wakes up from a coma to wreck havoc on the world AFTER getting Travolta's face grafted onto his.
There's more here to unpack, but one man gets placed in a kind of Super Mario Brother-style prison with heavy boots and needs to instigate a prison break while the other man gets promoted within the FBI and gets to leer at his daughter and sleep with his wife. Poor Joan Allen. The film takes truly sickening turns, feasting upon Cage as Travolta behaving badly while Travolta as Cage acts sullen. It is a bit fun to see future cast members of The Wire pop up here and there, as well as Margaret Cho.
It seems so completely ridiculous, with jumping while firing two guns, the world's least secure funeral of an FBI Director ever, slow-mo doves, culminating its superfluous boat race fight sequence (just because?), and then there is the end sequence which in some ways is the most nightmarish of all, tossing adoption, family reconciliation, and intense trauma aside for slow motion walks through the doorway and easy sibling camaraderie. I'm 42, so I'm clearly not the demographic for this film, but I honestly don't think I ever was? Again, so weird to think that Travolta was doing Pulp Fiction three years before this film and Cage, Leaving Las Vegas only a year before. The 90's were weird, indeed.
Shout out to Daniel Day-Lewis for never devolving to this level and for Robert DeNiro to delaying it a bit longer.
Move Reviewed: Broken Arrow
Director: John Woo
Date Reviewed: 11 February 2021
jamesintexas rating = *
And then there's Broken Arrow. I think chronologically this one came earlier. Plusses include John Travolta's hair (divine!) and a commitment to catch-phrases and the f-word. Gorgeous Utah, SW scenery. Negatives: Christian Slater seems to be trying to do a stoic Keanu Reeves-ish Speed performance of the undercard to Travolta's big bully big-mouthed boxer. Howie Long. An under-used Delroy Lindo.
Broken Arrow is the definition of a completely forgettable film. Travolta does look like he is having fun here, and his hair is a thing of beauty. And his smoking, with his masterfully swooping away with his fingers of his cigarette to punctuate his statements. This is the kind of film that detonates a nuclear bomb but counters with it being "completely safe" because it was "completely contained."
I like the scenery. I like the cursing. I like the seamless transitioning from Stealth bombers carrying nuclear weapons to Humvees to coal mines to boats to trains. There's far too much self-seriousness here though, and the belaboring of its symbols and bets between these two guys wears out its welcome. It ultimately feels bland, action without style, humorless and stale.
I could write more, but I'm not going to. Skip this one.
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