utter trash

Rating: Null/10 (19 March 2004)

Sometimes (usually after watching a really bad movie) I wonder what those involved in its production think when they sit down together to watch the fruits of their efforts before sending it out to the movie-going public. What happens if you have just starred in one of the worst movies you have ever seen?
Spoilers (eventually)
I can't imagine anything but the above happening to John Travolta and Nicholas Cage after seeing the final cut of Face/Off. They, along with Woo, should have left the set of this movie with paper bags over their faces. At least the stars can hope that the ridiculous confusion over who is who in the movie will stun viewers so completely that even after they leave the theatre Travolta and Cage remain bungled up in their minds. That way they can be blamed for each others' mistakes, and the ultimate mistake of agreeing to be in this movie. Woo, on the other hand has no such alter-alibi to save his reputation.
The plot and script are so unbelievably terrible in this movie that... that it's not even comical. In all honesty though, Cage and Travolta are good actors and they mostly do a good job with their parts...mostly. It would have been good for this movie if less proficient actors had been used. That way all elements of this film would have been comically bad--direction, plot, script, and acting-- and a viewer could laugh throughout, instead of feeling sad for Cage and Travolta.
Way too much shooting with the stars wearing the Hollywood "magic, invisible bullet forcefield" and everyone else jumping in front of the guns. There is this ridiculous scene near the end where they have a shootout in some isolated church. Doves flying around, pictures of Mary and statues of Christ share slo-mo frames with firing guns and dying people. Why? I don't know. I certainly hope that Woo didn't intend for this to be poetic or symbolic or something like that; there was no basis for it, it was just plain stupid.
At any rate, Woo is not completely without redemption in his career. Windtalkers was not a masterpiece of a film but it had a good historical background which made it worth watching.
This movie is not worth watching!!!!!!