I want my two hours and twenty minutes back!

Rating: 2/10 (1 March 2003)

I was truly shocked at just how bad this movie is. Having never seen a John Woo flick before, I was kind of expecting a dumb-but-stylish action thriller.
Well, it actually surpassed my expectations as to its dumbness; although a silly premise or plot device doesn't necessarily kill a movie (e.g., CASABLANCA, with it's "letters of transit" and apparent lack of an extradition treaty between Berlin and Vichy), a movie cannot survive when the premise, every plot device, and every character is completely stupid.
The real surprise was that Woo's style (with which he is obviously deeply in love) is absolutely ridiculous. I'm not even talking about a lack of realism, which I expected, having seen clips of that whole silly "shoot-two-guns-while-flying-through-the-air" nonsense. I mean, it all just *looks* stupid. Steven Seagal did better than this in ON DEADLY GROUND (though ODG is an even worse movie overall). And it's made even more ludicrous by the fact that Woo has far too much respect for his own nonexistent talent.
Did anyone else find Nicolas Cage's emoting to be alternately amusing and sick-making? I've heard of scenery-chewing, but Cage just makes a pig of himself here. Lots of people have mentioned Travolta's awful hamminess (and I'm certainly not disagreeing), but I think Cage is the worse offender.