a couple of months ago , when i first downloaded the face / off trailer from the net , my initial reaction was a fourteen carrot gold ' yawn ' . followed swiftly by a press of my computers delete key , not wanting to waste six or seven megabytes of precious space on this piss - poor trailer .
then i started reading the first wave of reviews from the u . s . . . . .
unique .
. .
excellent . . . . must - see .
well , i thought still skeptical
, i suppose i might as well go see it when it gets here . '
here ' , of course , was still three months away .
i 'll admit , when i trotted off to see this film , the only john woo movie i had seen before was the fairly enjoyable but highly forgetable broken arrow .
i 'd heard good things about his previous work with movies like hard boiled , but his films were definitely not on my must - see list .
that , let me tell you , has changed completely .
i knew this fact only five minutes into the film , after the brilliantly shot and acted opening sequence where sean archer loses his son blew me off my feet .
the acting throughout the film is staggeringly good for an action flick .
seriously .
i 've never been a big john travolta fan , but he , like cage , perfectly suited his role in the movie . . . . .
sorry , make that ' roles ' in the movie .
even travolta 's great performance , however , paled in comparison to cage 's character portrayals .
my favourite cage scene was definitely when he was crashed out in compardre dietrich hassler 's hideout .
half drugged out of his mind , he sits there reclining back in a chair talking about his son 's death from castor 's perspective - " does n't it just break your heart .
"
he mutters coldly .
now do n't go thinking from the previous comments about brilliant acting that this is a drama focused movie - it 's not .
that 's what really makes this movie unique .
it 's an action movie with brilliantly portrayed characters . . . . .
not a common mix at all .
suspension of disbelief is paramount in this movie though . . . . .
that 's the only way to overlook the fact that travolta and cage fire around 5671 rounds at each other . . . .
and never hit .
several action scenes are just so well choreographed that they just make wish that you could press ' rewind ' and watch it over again .
the part where archer and troy have a stand off on either side of a double - sided mirror is just plain brilliant .
whilst cage 's and travolta 's performances would be enough alone to sustain most movies , the lesser characters are just as intriguing .
joan allen , who usually sticks to the straight drama movies , plays her part perfectly as archer 's long suffering wife .
i like the fact that her character did n't end up toting a gun at the end of the movie .
. .
it would have wrecked her potrayal .
gina gershon was surprising to say the least as castor troy 's mistreated girlfriend . . . . .
make that * one of * castor troy 's mistreated girlfriends .
other movies would have used her character as just window dressing . . . a sex object , but instead her character is very strong and independent .
dominique swain , who plays archer 's daughter , also does a nice job , though her character is not as explored as much as allen 's or gershon 's .
faults ?
well .
. .
there were some i have to say .
first , the movie 's ending , whilst being very good overall , was a bit too drawn out for it 's own good .
after the two combatants begin duelling again after the final boat crash you ca n't help but think - " geez , are you guys nuclear powered or what ?
"
.
there were certain bits that were n't handled properly , like where archer appears safe and sound on solid ground after jumping off the converted oil platform / prison - more explanation here would have been nice .
overall , this movie was not perfect .
but i thought it was about as close as an action movie has ever came to perfect
.
many critics have claimed that this movie will change the way action movies are made . . . . .
i certainly hope so .
Output: P