John Woo and Nick Cage strike again!

Rating: 2/10 (21 October 2002)

Yet another terrible film for the Nicholas Cage library. Seriously, this guy has a problem. Something happened to him in since winning the Oscar. He has consistantly made bad films. What happened to the Nick Cage I liked in "Raising Arizona" and "Honeymoon in Vegas?" After the Oscar win his focus has been on dramas. It's called a good script. Rodney Dagerfield could have won the Oscar in that role. Comedy, Nick, comedy. As for John Woo. I don't get it. His Hong Kong movies are great. His American movies are not. He almost killed a potentially great franchise (Mission Impossible), Broken Arrow was just Travolta mugging for the camera, and Hard Target was just a typical Van Damn movie (although the shot of Wilford Brimly riding a horse with a compound bow makes me burst out laughing). Then there is the dreaded Face/Off. Travolta and Cage In a movie together! Oh joy! Both these guys got lucky with a fluke and everything since is crap. That movie is garbage wrapped in explosions and special effects. And what the hell is up with Travolta's family and the hand over the face thing. Are they training to be hypnotists? "And- SLEEP." Knowing all this I decided to check out Windtalkers. This movie tries to be "The Thin Red Line" and "Saving Private Ryan" combined. Instead it becomes something that World War II vets would give the finger to. Apparently there were a few costumes left over from "Pearl Harbor" so Woo thought he'd make a movie. In addition to the bad, over dramatized plot, the South Pacific island becomes the California desert halfway through the film. I'm sure I'd find other problems with this film, but I'm not going to subject myself to it again to find them. But hey, what do I know? I may be wrong. Find out for yourself. And then go rent "Navy Seals" too.