An action masterpiece

Rating: Null/10 (20 April 2004)

To begin, I must state that this film is not for people who can't take unrealistic and over the top action, or accept medically scientifically impossible medical procedures. If you can't take in a moive and realize that it is taking place removed from reality, this film is not for you. In my opinion, action movies should not be realistic. I watch them to escape from the real world, not to go over and over and point out what couldn't or wouldn't happen in real life.
If you can accept that, then you will love Face Off. Action maestro John Woo, best known by his ardent followers for his over the top and incredibly kinetic Hong Kong action films such as A Better Tomorrow 1 and 2, The Killer and Hard Boiled, and most famous in the US for his box office smash Mission Impossible 2, delivers a film that, while not quite on the level of his best work from Hong Kong, is clearly his best American film to date. And beyond that, a film that blows most other American action films out of the water.

Woo has the inate ability to make almost anything look good from a purely visual standpoint. He takes a simple thing like Nicholas Cage exiting a car and makes it look incredibly stylish and cool. Give him this kind of budget and R-rating, and look out. The action scenes in this movie are dazzling, replete with Woo's trademark slow motion shootouts and his one on one stand offs between enemies with guns pointed at each other at point blank range. This is bolstered by the resources he had at hand for this project, and he spares no expense in massive explosions. And the final boat chase is one of the best staged action sequences in years.
He also does a nice job handling the more dramatic moments in the film, aided by the very strong performances of both lead actors. Travolta and Cage both play the roles of the narcissistic, sadistic, over the top Castor Troy and the depressed, work obsessed family man Sean Archer very well. And while the script certainly has a few corny moments, especially the final scene, but it also includes some very funny dialogue and one liners, and provides the viewers with characters that are interesting and sympathetic.

This movie is not perfect from an overall standpoint, but as a major studio action movie it is about as close as you're going to get. Watching it just reminds us the massive impact that John Woo has had on action cinema worldwide, and his style has perhaps lost some of its impact now because of the host of imitators he has, most notably Michael Bay who directed The Rock and Bad Boys 1 and 2, and The Wachowski Brothers, famous for The Matrix trilogy. Unfortunately John Woo's career has been sidetracked by studio execs unwilling to compromise and allow him to make the types of movies he really wants to make, and Face Off remains the only great action film he's made in America. But it is a great one.