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Face Off is still awesome after 11 years!

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Face Off is still awesome after 11 years!

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Old 06-17-08, 10:13 AM
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Face Off is still awesome after 11 years!

Discuss this John Woo masterpiece here.
Old 06-17-08, 10:13 AM
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Originally Posted by Ram
Discuss this John Woo masterpiece here.
You start.
Old 06-17-08, 10:15 AM
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Its a great action movie that works on many levels. Great fun performances from the cast and awesome action. I wish they made more movies like this.
Old 06-17-08, 10:21 AM
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Still a very entertaining and watchable movie. Pretty much the only American John Woo movie that was any good whatsoever. Otherwise most of his American stuff was pretty rotten.
Old 06-17-08, 10:36 AM
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This is true.
Old 06-17-08, 10:44 AM
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I agree. I just watched the film a month ago for the first time in nearly 10 years and it still stands up for me. It's a fun film and a taste of how Woo's US films should have been like, instead of all the director-for-hire, studio controlled crap he's done that have virtually no hint of the fantastic style that so many of his HK films had. FACE/OFF is his only US film that shows any substantial amount of that style. It's really sad to see that happen to such a talent.
Old 06-17-08, 10:54 AM
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The movie is a great one. It has good action pieces and for a change Nic Cage and John Travolta actually do half decent acting jobs. I get the feeling they enjoyed the role reversal aspect. The daughter (Dominque Swain i believe) story blowed hard and John Woo's love of flying doves, slow mo and religious iconography were the only down sides. The only thing i wished is that they pushed it even further with the violence and action. I have to admit that i kinda liked Broken Arrow and i really liked Hard Target (Ok there almost zero story...but plenty of good action pieces). He has done some real crap though as well. Windtalkers anyone......
Old 06-17-08, 10:54 AM
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Originally Posted by mrflix
Still a very entertaining and watchable movie. Pretty much the only American John Woo movie that was any good whatsoever. Otherwise most of his American stuff was pretty rotten.
Ahhh. I really like Hard Target. But then, I would say those two are the only good ones.

On topic. Face/Off is good fun. The only thing is the obvious use of stunt men. Takes me out of it every time. But still enjoyable.
Old 06-17-08, 11:01 AM
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Face/Off is Woo's only film that even comes close to the genius of his Hong Kong filmography. The plot is absurd, but the actors are good enough to make you overlook that.

Although a part of me always kinda hoped that the movie would end with Archer being forced to keep Nick Cage's face as the price for his actions. That would've been ballsy.
Old 06-17-08, 11:12 AM
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Originally Posted by Groucho
You start.
Old 06-17-08, 11:30 AM
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Originally Posted by Doughboy
Face/Off is Woo's only film that even comes close to the genius of his Hong Kong filmography. The plot is absurd, but the actors are good enough to make you overlook that.

Although a part of me always kinda hoped that the movie would end with Archer being forced to keep Nick Cage's face as the price for his actions. That would've been ballsy.
Refresh my memory - what would the "price for his actions" exactly be? I don't recall him doing anything wrong/bad.
Old 06-17-08, 11:49 AM
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Originally Posted by SuckaMC
Ahhh. I really like Hard Target. But then, I would say those two are the only good ones.

On topic. Face/Off is good fun. The only thing is the obvious use of stunt men. Takes me out of it every time. But still enjoyable.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. The boat scene during the climax is especially horrendous. "Nick Cage" is hanging off the side of a speeding boat while fighting Travolta... but what's really impressive is that while doing so he managed to grow back all of the hair lost to male pattern baldness!

Still a damned fun flick, though... and very quotable.


-Doc
Old 06-17-08, 12:28 PM
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Love this movie, but yes...the stuntmen just look bad.

= J
Old 06-17-08, 12:31 PM
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Originally Posted by Superman07
Refresh my memory - what would the "price for his actions" exactly be? I don't recall him doing anything wrong/bad.
Probably the price of having his face... offfffff
Old 06-17-08, 12:36 PM
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Agree with everyone about the stuntmen looking horrible. My personal favorite scene is the shoot out to "Over the Rainbow". Was a great piece of action in the late 90s.
Old 06-17-08, 12:49 PM
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Great movie, totally absurd fun. I remember back in 97' Entertainment Weekly did an article on how realistic the summer movies were, Contact got good marks but Face/Off got one of the lowest scores. I think they described the central premise as if someone picked up New York City, complete with plumbing and electrical infrastructure and expected it to fit perfectly on top of Los Angeles.
Old 06-17-08, 01:05 PM
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The only thing that's worse than Nicholas Cage acting, is Nicholas Cage acting like John Travolta acting like Nicholas Cage.



Sorry... didn't like the film the first time around, still don't like it now.
Old 06-17-08, 01:07 PM
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great fun. I kinda liked Woo's American stuff. and Paycheck wasn't that bad.
Old 06-17-08, 01:16 PM
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Apparantly not as awesome as True Romance.

Old 06-17-08, 01:28 PM
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Originally Posted by Tarantino
Love this movie, but yes...the stuntmen just look bad.

= J
Woo probably got them because all white people look the same.
Old 06-17-08, 01:39 PM
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I agree. It's not a great film, but it's a helluva lot of fun. I hadn't seen it since theaters, but I recently got the HD DVD and really had a lot of fun watching it. It's such a ridiculously over the top film that you really just have to turn your brain off for 2 hours and enjoy yourself.
Old 06-17-08, 01:56 PM
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Originally Posted by Superman07
Refresh my memory - what would the "price for his actions" exactly be? I don't recall him doing anything wrong/bad.
Lying to his wife and colleagues about the face transplant. All the people who were killed once Castor Troy wakes from his coma. Archer is at least in part responsible for the carnage.

Of course, all of that could've been avoided had there been a freaking security guard on patrol at the institute! A major terrorist is laying in bed and there isn't a cop for miles?! One of the worst plotholes ever IMO.
Old 06-17-08, 01:57 PM
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Face/Off was awesome? Why was I not told this? WHY? I may have enjoyed it if I knew that going in
Old 06-17-08, 02:09 PM
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I really enjoyed it when I saw it in the theater. Haven't seen it since for some reason.
Old 06-17-08, 02:17 PM
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Ahaha, I still have good memories about this movie. I loved those gold guns as a kid.


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