ridiculous

Rating: Null/10 (13 June 2001)

Whenever you see a typical movie made 20-25 years ago, you wonder how most films today have sunk into noisy, stupidly designed action death moans such as Face/Off. Near the beginning of the film, a jet is taking off a noisy runway with people yelling and shooting at each other with a boisterous music score to boot. If you add in a incoherent plot, far-fetched scenes that baffle medical description, what you have is a perfect example of the so-called action film of the 90's.
I'm not just criticizing this film, but the whole action/thriller genre which has forgotten how to use silence as a mood enhancer, forgotten how to develop believable characters who are well rounded(around the hips too), forgotten how to use loud sound effects effectively. Its like a bunch of bombs going off all at once-giving no impact to their devastation since we've grown so insensitive to the constant harrassment to our ears. I can save eight or nine bucs by just going to the nearest noisy arcade around the corner to get the same result.
This is the rule of thumb for most films in this genre and wouldn't want to discredit some films that have not forgotten how to do it right.