If you only see one blockbuster this summer, make it Face/Off.
Three reasons:
1) it's everything a summer movie should be -- big explosions, wild
chases -- but even better. It's got a unique sense of style,
energy
to spare, and some terrific actors strutting their stuff.
2) It's got bits of all the other summer blockbusters:
out-of-control boat (Speed 2), hidden identities (Batman
&
Robin), Greek mythology (Hercules), cool guns & shades (Men
In Black), science mumbo-jumbo (The Lost World), and
Nicolas
Cage (Con Air).
3) You gotta love any movie with a cameo by Joe Bob Briggs (aka John
Bloom).
The plot in brief: Ever since super-bad-dude Castor Troy (Cage) killed his son, FBI Agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) has hunted him with the single-minded obsessiveness of Captain Ahab. He catches Castor, only to find that the Troys have planted a bomb to blow up "Hell A." (his words, Dave, not mine -- although I do love quoting them). Archer appropriates Castor's face and mannerisms -- don't ask how -- to find out where the bomb is from brother Pollux (who's got a Verbal Kint/ Keyser Soze duality thing going). But that's just the start of a twisty plot, as Castor takes Archer's face... and job and family, doing better with them than Archer did.
Nicolas Cage is sensational -- especially in a powerful prison scene where, newly Castorized, Archer visibly forces himself to assume Castor's psychosis. Travolta is good, too -- when he plays the family-values type, he's deathly bland, but he's got a flair for evil. Both actors clearly have a lot of fun as the demented Castor, but more importantly, they both create characters we really care about, so rare in action movies. Oh, and a shout out to Gina Gershon -- as Castor's girlfriend, she adds another great tough cookie role to her resume and comes one step closer to being forgiven for Showgirls.
You've probably heard a lot of things about director John Woo's stunning action scenes, and it's all true. They're balletic, graceful, Peckinpah-esque. I had been impressed by Quentin Tarantino's style, but now I see why so many critics accuse him of being a pale knockoff of Woo. Woo adds highbrow culture where Tarantino sticks to pop culture -- while setting the bomb, Castor prances to Handel's "Messiah," not to "Stuck in the Middle With You." Toward the end, there's a scene in a church that's a visual knock-out (if a bit ham-handed with the symbolism, which actually goes for the whole movie).
So, just a couple of quibbles. First, couldn't they have found stuntmen who even vaguely resembled the actors? Cage's stand-in has flowing hair; Travolta's is built like Iggy Pop. And second, the sappy, cornball ending had me gagging. And Archer's wife and daughter never mention that A RAVING PSYCHOPATH treated them better than the real Archer did!
Note: This is a long movie. I saw a midnight show, hoping to avoid the crowds, not realizing it was 2 1/2 hours long. Not that it put me to sleep -- on the contrary, I was so energized I couldn't get to sleep until 4 a.m.
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