Old Stuff
Face/Off (1997)
Directed by John Woo
The hamster, John Travolta, continues to pick projects that makes you wish "Pulp Fiction" never resurrected his career. This time out, Barbarino is a FBI man on the trail of deranged crook/terrorist played by Nicholas Cage. When a comatose Cage is captured, Barbarino has no choice but to have Cage's face surgically transplanted on him in order to infiltrate Cage's gang and discover the whereabouts of a hidden bomb... okay, we just have to accept this or there's no movie... so after Cage snaps out of it and takes Travolta's face, job and wife (Joan Allen), the movie should be off and running. Instead John Woo's fumbling direction ruins all the potential fun of this psychological pot-boiler. When the guns are put away, the movie just kinda drifts.
One of many subplots that are squandered is the relationship between tight-ass Travolta and his troubled teenage daughter played by Dominique Swain. When her dad is suddenly transformed into a dark and mysterious rebel, she is intrigued. With the stench of incest wafting in the air, Woo holds his breath. If Cage is really that bad, why wouldn't he take this opportunity to ruin Travolta's life and family? It could have been the most interesting thing about this story. How would Travolta's character deal with the mess he would eventually have to come home to? Could he look his daughter, or his wife, in the eyes after this? It's going to be tough knowing that his wife had sex with Cage (thinking it was Travolta) but his daughter? How could he deal with that? How would his wife deal with it? Or the daughter? Yuck! That's at least five thousand years worth of family therapy, right there. Anyway, Woo decides to drop the whole thing and run for the hills. Later, he actually tries to spin it into a positive for the relationship between the father and daughter.
The rest of the action between Cage and Travolta is just a predictable showdown highlighted by another boring cliche; the hero and villain pushing their pistols into each other's face while in a standoff. Woo can be partly forgiven since he is the originator of this unfortunate version of cinematic cock fighting (in his HK days) but it's time to come up with something new. Evidently, Face/Off was a futuristic scifi but for some reason was re-set in the present, making it just that much more unbelievable. -- Rating: $1.52
Tom Graney -- copyright 1997 Hollywood Outsider