Face/Off . Tucson Weekly . 07-10-97

Face/Off

DIRECTED BY: John Woo

REVIEWED: 07-10-97

Hong Kong action guru John Woo's latest Hollywood product, a homoerotically violent take on Freaky Friday, will likely convert a lot of viewers from saying "Woo who?" to "Woo hoo!" Basically, good guy John Travolta has his face switched with evil nemesis Nicolas Cage so he can get crucial information; then Cage (now Travolta) gets loose, puts Travolta (now Cage) in prison and takes over his life (not to mention his wife). The grotesque and technically dazzling face-switching scene alone is worth the admission price, and it gives Woo his best-ever excuse for two men to obsess over each other. This time he throws family values into the mix, creating audacious contrasts between bursts of sexily edited slo-mo violence and bluntly sincere dialogue relating to Travolta's dead son. I loved watching Cage and Travolta try to out-ham and out-earnest each other; they're perfect sparring partners. But when Woo recycled the two best scenes from his most successful Hong Kong films, The Killer and Hard Boiled, it became apparent he'd lost a certain zany quality; and somewhere around the 1,000th gunshot he starts riding a fine line between "the poetry of violence" (as inspired by Sam Peckinpah) and hyperkinetic mush (as inspired by music videos). Sympathetic supporting performances by Joan Allen and Gina Gershon can't mask the cartoonishness of Woo's dramatic style; his attempts to make the audience care are such wholesome failures they become another part of the spectacle. In other words, resolve to take Face/Off only at face value and you'll probably have a good time.

--Zachary Woodruff

Full Length Reviews
Face/Off
Face/Off
Face/Off

Capsule Reviews
Face/Off

Other Films by John Woo
Broken Arrow
Hard Target

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