| Face/Off (1997) Cast:John Travlota,Nicolas Cage,Joan Allen,Gina Gershon,Nick Cassavates John Travolta plays Sean Archer an FBI agent who hunts a killer Castor Troy who killed Archer's son when they meet in combat the first time, Archer finds that Troy has put a bomb somewhere in Los Angeles, so in order to find out the location he trades faces with Troy to learn of the location that bomb, unfortunately Troy wakes up and forces the doctors to give him Archer's face and in doing so Archer must not only escape from prison to protect his friends, family and world from the evil Castor Troy but also prove his innocense in this excitingly action-packed thriller which remain's Woo's best U.S movie to date. Face/Off offers a preposterous situation but it's done with so much style and wit that the movie often becomes so richly entertaining that one is able to ignore the plotholes in the script which has no real base in logic, Aside from overlength and a few misplaced camera techniques John Woo has crafted a riveting thriller which indeed gets the blood pumping. After his first two attempts John Woo was looking for a movie to really show off his talent and although he did a good job with Hard Target and Broken Arrow both movies pale in comparison with Face/Off mainly because of the fact that Woo isn't fighting the movie police, Woo is simply delivering what he was best known for in Hong Kong. The actionscenes themselves are immensely exciting and what makes Face/Off a superior outing is that Woo handles the dramatic scenes as well as the action. This is a tall order considering how easy it is to louse up the premise, in the hands of someone else this thing could've been really bad but Woo sturdy directing makes it work.. As it stands Face/Off represents that Hollywood can still make a slambang actioner that has brains and texture. When it wants to, that is.. D.John Woo ***1/2 |