Issue #4: Face/Off

Pitch meeting: Have two Hollywood legends play each other playing insane characters and just go along for the ride

How does one beat Nicolas Cage playing John Travolta, and vice versa? They really set themselves up for success from the get-go on this one.

But one very crucial thing really put this instant classic on the right path from the very beginning - the inclusion of John Woo as the film’s director.

Woo is a Hong Kong cinema legend, helming some incredible films such as A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard Boiled, and 2009’s Red Cliff. The former two star Tony Leung, another Hong Kong legend who unbelievably made his Hollywood debut this month with Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. He was excellent in it, by the way, as was the rest of the cast. Definitely worth a trip to the movies.

Also, this trailer rules.

But back to Woo, who built a reputation as a master of action in Hong Kong and successfully carried that over into Hollywood, while going back and forth a couple of times in recent years. According to this quote, though, it seems like he wasn’t too fond of the LA game.

Even though I enjoyed the opportunity to work in Hollywood, I never got used to their system. I didn't like much of the studio people. Well, there are too much politics and so much going on, and a lot of them have nothing to do with the movie. It's all about power, it's all about egos.

Fun Fact: Woo had previously worked with Travolta on Broken Arrow and would go on to work with Cage again on Windtalkers.

And now, silence your cellular devices and make sure your candy is already open because we’re not animals here and we can plan ahead instead of letting loud plastic wrappers interrupt important scene-setting dialogue in the first act. Whew. Deep breath.

The Feature Film

Look, I knew the premise of the film going into it but no one could be prepared enough to see a couple of vacuum-sealed faces getting swapped as easy as if they were baseball caps.

Movie-magic, people. Forget space-faring spectacles like Interstellar or CGI slugfests like any Avengers movie. Hearing Travolta’s unmodified voice come out of Nic Cage’s face immediately post-op is the height of cinematic achievement in recent memory.

John Woo clearly understood Hollywood and what people wanted in that era, releasing this Criterion Collection shoo-in alongside other ‘97 masterpieces L.A. Confidential, Boogie Nights, and Starship Troopers. Oh yeah, and Titanic and Good Will Hunting.

After last week’s bummerfest I needed a fun movie and I found it in Face/Off. The action is insane, the plot is bonkers, and the runtime is well over two hours. I mean, Cage’s character sets a bomb to go off in like a week and a half or something stupid like that. And nobody questions it!

I loved it all.

Well, except for the thing where Travolta drags his hand down his family member’s faces. That was creepy and I hated it.

Thanks to all those who suggested this one. I’ve got all the other requested flicks on a list, so be sure to check back to see if next week is the week we’ll finally dive into Willy’s Wonderland.

I’ll give Face/Off four and half magnetized prison boots out of five.

Bonus Reflection On An Insane Plot That You Will Love: