Face / Off

So I'm educating my young son on the important films in the cinematic historical landscape, you know, movies that matter. Like 'Road House' or 'The Blue Brothers'. 'Enter the Dragon' or anything Pam Grier appears naked in. Important stuff that a good, responsible father should teach his son, know what I'm saying? A critical part of this cinematic education would have to include the films of John Woo, but I didn't want to hit him with the heavy stuff like 'A Better Tomorrow' or 'The Killer' as those films might make his head pop off, and most of Mr. Woo's American endeavors were, to be kind, suspect though we would like to get a hold of a director's cut of 'Hard Target' as I hear that that particular movie had potential before the studios got to it. This brings us to 1997's 'Face Off', John Woo's high water mark when it comes to his American film career, a movie which is almost the perfect combination of what Mr. Woo does best, this being crazy action, slow motion explosions, and doves in churches… and what American Cinema does best, this being propping up big stars, throwing big money at a project, and telling stories that make almost no real world sense. And it was magical.

Hardcore FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) loves his little boy Mikey. If you don't think so, watch the loving way he drapes his hand over his face which is a very annoying thing the Archers like to do to each other. Thank goodness that didn't catch on. Problem is that the super evil, super crazy international terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) shoots Archer in the back while he was lovingly draping his hand across his son's face, the bullet passing through Archer into Mikey's brain. Mikey's dead, Archer is sad and Castor Troy will be his personal pet project for the next half dozen years.

So as we mentioned, six miserable years have passed for Sean Archer, six years in which he has emotionally flogged his team of hardworking FBI underlings for their incompetence in bringing Castor Troy to justice, but finally there's a break in the case. Just so you know, Castor has dropped a dirty bomb to blow up in the L.A. convention center in about six days and was about to jet out of town before a glorious shootout with Archer and his gang, featuring tons of explosions and a high murder rate, ending with Castor in a coma.

But here's the problem, nobody except Castor's paranoid sociopath brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola) knows where the bomb is, and he speaks to no one except Castor. What to do? I know… let's convince Sean to swap faces with Castor! It's a complicated procedure to be sure, but when it's done Sean Archer will look and sound and be the same height and size as Castor Troy. Technology baby.

Problem is that somehow Castor Troy has come out of his coma and forced the doctor to put Sean's face on his face! What? No Way! Now Castor Troy, who has murdered the few law officials who knew about the face off scam, is running around town looking like Sean Archer, he has a badge, he's gotten his bro out jail, he's sexing up Sean's beleaguered wife (Joan Allen), ogling his bratty daughter (Dominique Swain), and left the real Sean to rot in jail, as him, for all of eternity. Crazy.

If only Sean could bust out jail in some kind of daring and completely illogical way. If only. Now Sean, looking like Castor, has to find a way to get his life back, convince his wife she's been boning… Castor's words, not mine… their son's killer, and finally take down the menace that is the REAL Castor Troy once and for all. I don't know if he's going to do it, but I do know that doves and bullets will be flying. I knew that even before I pressed play on the DVD player.

So after this movie concludes with its glorious, violent, action filled crescendo, the boy says 'Whoa, that movie had too much action'. And a paternity test was ordered right away. I've always had my doubts. That whackjob's opinion aside, what's not to love about 'Face Off'? Since the movie starts off with a concept that is impossibly ridiculous and wouldn't make any kind of sense even in a galaxy far, far away, Team Woo was beholden to nothing except lunacy and blowing stuff up, and clearly if somebody is silly enough to give John Woo to what probably amounted to what he considered an unlimited bullet budget, you are going to get some explosions and a bullet ballet that few movies have rivaled before or since.

But the face 'Face Off' fun factor was more than just bullets and explosions and doves in churches, I mean aside from Vinny Barbarino, has John Travolta ever looked better than when he was Castor Troy? And that includes 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Pulp Fiction'. Folks give Nic Cage a hard time about being a crappy actor or whatnot, despite his Academy Award, but he did have the tougher road here, going down from Castor to Sean, and did my man nail the part? Why yes he did. Plus we had a strong supporting cast which included Gina Gershon and Nick Cassavetes as a pair of siblings who really loved each other… a lot… and it was disturbing… the classic awesomeness of 'Face Off' cannot be minimalized.

Not that there's not plenty to criticize about this movie if one was really dead set on doing that, I mean if the story slowed down long enough you'd could probably find enough plot holes that to make any groundhog's day, and you do kind of have to buy into the whole Face coming Off thing, but it is the title of the movie which should make it easier for even the most discriminating cinema realist.

It's 'Face / Off', it's a classic and it should be watched by everybody on the planet Earth who cherishes ridiculous cinema. And that should be everybody on the planet Earth.