Spectacular 3-D visual effects, larger-than-life action situations, and audacious characters make the fifth entry in the “Resident Evil” franchise a lot of fun. Virtually everybody is referring to “Resident Evil: Afterlife” (*** out of ****) as the fourth entry. Basically, with some justification, each is ignoring director Makoto Kamiya’s “Resident Evil: Degeneration.” Mind you, “Resident Evil: Degeneration” was an animated epic without Alice as the chief protagonist, and it went straight-to-video when Sony released it back in 2008. As far as I’m considered, Sony scraped the bottom of the biohazard barrel with “Resident Evil: Degeneration.” Nothing about it was remotely memorable. Meanwhile, “Death Race” director Paul W.S. Anderson returns to the helm with the latest entry “Resident Evil: Afterlife.” For the record, Anderson directed the original “Resident Evil” (2002) and has penned all four of the live-action features as well as served as producer. “Resident Evil: Afterlife” qualifies as a crisp, invigorating, 97-minute actioneer never wears out its welcome. The digital 3-D prints are scintillating to see. When the butt-kicking heroic babe charges the camera and hurls those ninja throwing stars, you want to dodge them. Meaning, Sony Pictures produced the movie in 3-D. Lately, some studios have simply converted a 2-D movie into 3-D, and the movie looks terrible. This is not the case with “Resident Evil: Afterlife.”
This action-packed post-apocalyptic zombie flick unfolds in Tokyo. An outbreak of the T-virus devastates the capital city of Japan. By the time that practically everybody is dead, the Umbrella Corporation posts snipers to pick off wandering zombies. Without warning, the Umbrella snipers begin to die. Of course, Alice with her samurai sword is at work, and she brings multiple clones of herself armed with Heckler and Koch MP-5 submachine guns. Initially, she kills close to 500 soldiers at the Umbrella Corporation’s underground headquarters and targets the evil Umbrella Corporation Chairman Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts of “Edge of Darkness”) who manages to escape in a twin-engine helicopter with wings. The real Alice sneaks aboard to kill him and he drains her of the mutant resources that the T-virus instilled in her. Basically, Alice goes back to being a mortal. Wesker, who has been infected by the virus, is struggling to control the effects of the T-virus, and he needs what has been rolling around in Alice’s system. Suddenly, the hover chopper jet that Wesker escaped in from the Tokyo Headquarters crashes on a mountainside. Miraculously, Alice survives. She sets off to find her friends, Claire Redfield (Ali Larter of “Final Destination”) and K-Mart (Spencer Locke of “Spanglish”), who flew off in helicopters to Alaska to find safety at a place called Arcadia. The catch is that Arcadia is a super tanker operated by the Umbrella Corporation. and they capture everybody who left the desert in the previous film “Resident Evil: Extinction.” The Umbrella henchmen slap a ruby red spider-like contraption onto their chests that robs them of their memory. Claire managed to escape, but K-Mart and over two thousand others were imprisoned to be used in more Umbrella experiments. Alice commandeers a propeller-driven plane, flies to Alaska and finds Claire. The ruby red spider like device on Claire’s chest has wiped out her memory, and Claire tries to kill Alice when they first met.
Together Alice and Claire wind up flying to Los Angeles. The city of Angels stands in cinders and only seven people have survived. They are holed up in a skyscraper prison, and zombies have laid siege to the building. Alice wings her way in and makes a cliffhanger landing on the prison roof. She almost overshoots the roof. By now, Claire has regained her memory. They meet a sleazy movie producer Bennett (Kim Coates of “Waterworld”), Bennett’s intern Kim Yong (newcomer Norman Yeung), basketball superstar Luther West (Boris Kodjoe of “Surrogates”), Angel Ortiz (Sergio Peris-Mencheta of “Love Ranch”), aspiring actress Crystal (Kacey Barnfield of “Popcorn”), and Wendell (Fulvio Cecere of “Watchmen”). Initially, they believe Alice and Claire have come to fly them to the nearby supertanker Arcadia. The supertanker is visible from the top of the prison, and they’ve heard the radio station about safety and food. Of course, Alice has to disappoint them. Nevertheless, Alice is intrigued about the ship. Claire meets her older brother Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller of ABC-TV’s “Prison Break”) who has been mistaken for a killer and locked by Bennett and his people. Chris has a way that they can escape from the prison and make it to the coast where they can get transportation to the Arcadia. Eventually, the zombies break into the prison after a Goliath dragging a gigantic hammer smashes his way through the locked gates and comes after Alice. As our heroes struggle to escape from the zombies, they are whittled down by the opposition.
Ultimately, the flaw that afflicts “Resident Evil: Afterlife” and all the “Resident Evil” sequels is story. In the original "Resident Evil," the Umbrella Corporation manufactured viral weapons and an industrial spy broke into the corporation’s Raccoon City complex and unleashed it. Everybody died, but they did not remain dead. They came back from the dead as ravenous flesh eating zombies. Not only did the men and women come back as zombies, but also the laboratory animals and mutant laboratory experiments. Since “Resident Evil,” Alice (Milla Jovovich) has been destroying zombies as well as Umbrella executives who want to carry on business as usual. Anderson hasn’t altered that serviceable narrative very much. You can only do so much with zombies unless you are cult filmmaker George Romeo, and Romeo changed zombies in “Land of the Dead.” Nevertheless, aside from the deadly familiarity that the franchise suffers from, everything else in “Resident Evil: Afterlife” looks fantastic. Jovovich’s gravity-defying antics, the exotic settings, a variety of new zombies: burrowing zombies, zombies octopus-like mandibles, water zombies, and a gigantic zombie with a gargantuan axe, as well as glossy production values, George Washington quarters as Alice’s shotgun ammo, a high body count, and the thumping tomandandy soundtrack make this adaptation of the Capcom survival horror videogame a blast to watch.
CINEMATIC REVELATIONS allows me the luxury of writing, editing and archiving my film and television reviews. Some reviews appeared initially in "The Commercial Dispatch" and "The Planet Weekly" and then later in the comment archives at the Internet Movie Database. IMDB.COM, however, imposes a limit on both the number of words and the number of times that an author may revise their comments. I hope that anybody who peruses these expanded reviews will find them useful.
Showing posts with label prisons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prisons. Show all posts
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Saturday, August 1, 2009
FILM REVIEW OF "THE KILLERS'' (1946)
“Son of Dracula” director Robert Siodmak, who emigrated from Germany after Joseph Goebbels drove him out of the Fatherland, made a specialty of what French film theorist Nino Frank called ‘film noir.’ These gritty, black & white melodramas usually occurred in an urban setting and involved unsavory criminal types as well as cops. Women—designated as femme fatales--often lured gullible men to their doom like the sirens did to sailors in ancient Greek myths. Although some scenes take place during daylight hours, most film noir thrillers unfold after dark. Metaphorically, film noir involve flawed protagonists suffering from some psychological neuroses. Siodmak’s “The Killers” (**** out of ****)epitomizes vintage film noir. “Black Friday” lenser Woody Bredell captures the fatalistic look of film noir, and Siodmark incorporates several mirror image scenes as they depict the solution to a mysterious robbery and the demise of all the conspirators. Basically, nobody winds up with what they set out to get in "The Killers" starting with the eponymous villains when they order supper at a lunch wagon.
“The Stranger” scenarist Anthony Veiller, along with John Huston and Richard Brooks (neither received credit for their contributions), adapted Ernest Hemingway’s famous short story that Scribner’s Magazine had published in its March 1927 issue. Siodmak and his scribes kept most of the short story intact. The short story dealt with two tough-guy gunmen who occupied a Midwestern dinner in a small town and waited to kill a prizefighter named ‘Swede’ Anderson. Undoubtedly influenced by the narrative flashbacks in “Citizen Kane,” the filmmakers forge the remainder of this concise 103 minute film with flashbacks galore as various individuals discuss their relationship with a curious lone wolf insurance investigator who cannot get over the fact that the Swede accepted his inevitable death at the hands of the gunmen without trying to defend himself. The puzzled investigator exhausts every single clue in the case and winds up solving a 6 year old hat factory robbery and recovers a portion of the loot.
“The Killers” opens after dark as two gunsels in fedoras and trench coats, Max (William Conrad) and Al (Charles McGraw of "The Narrow Margin"), cruise into the cozy hamlet of Brentwood, New Jersey, check out the Tri-States Gas Station and then step over to Henry’s lunch counter a little before 6 PM when supper is served and set up an ambush to kill ‘Swede’ Anderson. The diner owner warns them that if the ‘Swede’ doesn’t show at 6 PM then he isn’t going to show. The gunmen leave Henry’s dinner and he unties his black cook and a customer, Nick Adams. Adams (Phil Brown) works with the Swede at the gas station. Henry sends Nick off to warn the Swede (Burt Lancaster in his film debut) before the gunmen can find him. Nick warns the Swede, but the Swede refuses to flee. “I once did something bad,” he explains to Nick. Later, Max and Al barge into his room and shoot the Swede eight times. All we see is the flash of their firearms barking off-camera as they perforate the Swede.
Riordan (Edmond O’Brien of “DOA”) investigates claims for an insurance company. He learns that the Swede left $2,500 to a beneficiary. Riordan questions Nick about the Swede. The flashbacks begin with Nick’s story about the Swede meeting an out-of-town motorist who makes him so queasy that he takes a day off of work and lies in the darkness of his boarding house. Initially, Riordan’s boss, R.S. Kenyon (Donald MacBride of “Room Service”), considers it a nickel and dime case and wants Riordan on another case. Riordan convinces Kenyon to give him more time. Riordan calls on Philadelphia Police Detective Lieutenant Sam Lubinsky (Sam Levene of “Golden Boy”) who not only grew up with the Swede but later arrested him for theft and sent him to prison for three years. Lubinsky tells Riordan about the Swede's ill-fated boxing days and later how he fell into bad company. Lubinsky arrested his own childhood friend on a theft charge because the Swede refused to let him arrest his flame Kitty on a shoplifting charge. Riordan attends the Swede’s funeral that Lubinsky and his wife, Lilly Harmon Lubinsky (Virginia Christine of the Folgers Coffee commercials), have arranged and asks about another funeral guest.
Charleston (Vince Barrett of “Scarface”) shared a prison cell with the Swede for two years. He tells Riordan his side of the story. In the flashback, Charleston contacts the Swede as soon as he got out of prison about a job. The Swede joins the ring of criminals led by ‘Big’ Jim Colfax (Albert Dekker of “The Wild Bunch”), a trigger-happy goon, Dum Dum Clarke (Jack Lambert of “Vera Cruz”), and Blinky Franklin (Jeff Corey of “True Grit”). Charleston refuses to participate in the robbery caper because he thinks that it is too big and will end in failure. He explains that he will never go back to prison and lives only for 'easy pickings.'
Riordan learns that Colfax, Clarke, Franklin and the Swede robbed the Prentiss Hat factory from a single lead, a green silk bandana with an Irish harp on it. An incredulous Kenyon reads about the robbery.
While Kenyon reads about the robbery on the soundtrack, Siodmak presents the robbery in a single take with a crane shot. Clearly, Siodmak knew his craft to pull off this complicated camera movement. This scene exemplifies Siodmak’s finesse with the mise-en-scene. Touches like this one elevate “The Killers” and make it look better than it convoluted story. Indeed, Veiller, Huston, and Brooks expand the scope of the action, going back seven years to depict the Swede’s victories and successes. Usually, the Swede lost. He goes soft on a dame, Kitty (Ava Gardner of “Whistle Stop”) and takes a fall for her so that she won’t land in prison. The remainder of “The Killers” deals with caper that Big Jim cooks up. When the Swede joins them, he is surprised to see Kitty as Big Jim’s squeeze. Later, Big Jim and the Swede fight over a card game. Big Jim hates the Swede and tries to cut him out of the robbery. The Swede trumps him because Kitty tells him about the new rendezvous and he swipes the $250-thousand from Colfax, Clarke, and Blinky.
“The Killers” qualifies as a top-notch film noir caper. Burt Lancaster became a star as did his co-star Ava Gardner. The irony is the Swede never had a chance with Kitty. He took a dive for her and she still tricked him. The theme of fate pervades “The Killers.” The Swede knows he’ll never escape either fate or the gunsels. Siodmak coaxes solid performances from a talented cast. Lancaster is simply dazzling as the thick headed Swede who goes dizzy over Kitty and is destroyed by her treachery. Ava Gardner looks spectacular as the cunning Kitty, while Albert Dekker is appropriately perfidious as Colfax. He uses Kitty to trick not only the Swede into thinking that he has robbed Colfax and his pals, but also he eliminates his conspirators—Dum Dum and Blinky—by letting the Swede take the loot. The plot twists and the ending when Kitty finds her neck finally caught in the noose of fate is outstanding. Film noir not only cheats the villains but it also cheats Riordan. Initially, Riordan is elated because he solved the six-year old robbery, but Kenyon points out:"Owing to your splendid efforts, the basic rate of the Atlantic Casualty Company as of 1947 will probably drop one-tenth of a cent." “The Killers” is powerful stuff.
“The Stranger” scenarist Anthony Veiller, along with John Huston and Richard Brooks (neither received credit for their contributions), adapted Ernest Hemingway’s famous short story that Scribner’s Magazine had published in its March 1927 issue. Siodmak and his scribes kept most of the short story intact. The short story dealt with two tough-guy gunmen who occupied a Midwestern dinner in a small town and waited to kill a prizefighter named ‘Swede’ Anderson. Undoubtedly influenced by the narrative flashbacks in “Citizen Kane,” the filmmakers forge the remainder of this concise 103 minute film with flashbacks galore as various individuals discuss their relationship with a curious lone wolf insurance investigator who cannot get over the fact that the Swede accepted his inevitable death at the hands of the gunmen without trying to defend himself. The puzzled investigator exhausts every single clue in the case and winds up solving a 6 year old hat factory robbery and recovers a portion of the loot.
“The Killers” opens after dark as two gunsels in fedoras and trench coats, Max (William Conrad) and Al (Charles McGraw of "The Narrow Margin"), cruise into the cozy hamlet of Brentwood, New Jersey, check out the Tri-States Gas Station and then step over to Henry’s lunch counter a little before 6 PM when supper is served and set up an ambush to kill ‘Swede’ Anderson. The diner owner warns them that if the ‘Swede’ doesn’t show at 6 PM then he isn’t going to show. The gunmen leave Henry’s dinner and he unties his black cook and a customer, Nick Adams. Adams (Phil Brown) works with the Swede at the gas station. Henry sends Nick off to warn the Swede (Burt Lancaster in his film debut) before the gunmen can find him. Nick warns the Swede, but the Swede refuses to flee. “I once did something bad,” he explains to Nick. Later, Max and Al barge into his room and shoot the Swede eight times. All we see is the flash of their firearms barking off-camera as they perforate the Swede.
Riordan (Edmond O’Brien of “DOA”) investigates claims for an insurance company. He learns that the Swede left $2,500 to a beneficiary. Riordan questions Nick about the Swede. The flashbacks begin with Nick’s story about the Swede meeting an out-of-town motorist who makes him so queasy that he takes a day off of work and lies in the darkness of his boarding house. Initially, Riordan’s boss, R.S. Kenyon (Donald MacBride of “Room Service”), considers it a nickel and dime case and wants Riordan on another case. Riordan convinces Kenyon to give him more time. Riordan calls on Philadelphia Police Detective Lieutenant Sam Lubinsky (Sam Levene of “Golden Boy”) who not only grew up with the Swede but later arrested him for theft and sent him to prison for three years. Lubinsky tells Riordan about the Swede's ill-fated boxing days and later how he fell into bad company. Lubinsky arrested his own childhood friend on a theft charge because the Swede refused to let him arrest his flame Kitty on a shoplifting charge. Riordan attends the Swede’s funeral that Lubinsky and his wife, Lilly Harmon Lubinsky (Virginia Christine of the Folgers Coffee commercials), have arranged and asks about another funeral guest.
Charleston (Vince Barrett of “Scarface”) shared a prison cell with the Swede for two years. He tells Riordan his side of the story. In the flashback, Charleston contacts the Swede as soon as he got out of prison about a job. The Swede joins the ring of criminals led by ‘Big’ Jim Colfax (Albert Dekker of “The Wild Bunch”), a trigger-happy goon, Dum Dum Clarke (Jack Lambert of “Vera Cruz”), and Blinky Franklin (Jeff Corey of “True Grit”). Charleston refuses to participate in the robbery caper because he thinks that it is too big and will end in failure. He explains that he will never go back to prison and lives only for 'easy pickings.'
Riordan learns that Colfax, Clarke, Franklin and the Swede robbed the Prentiss Hat factory from a single lead, a green silk bandana with an Irish harp on it. An incredulous Kenyon reads about the robbery.
While Kenyon reads about the robbery on the soundtrack, Siodmak presents the robbery in a single take with a crane shot. Clearly, Siodmak knew his craft to pull off this complicated camera movement. This scene exemplifies Siodmak’s finesse with the mise-en-scene. Touches like this one elevate “The Killers” and make it look better than it convoluted story. Indeed, Veiller, Huston, and Brooks expand the scope of the action, going back seven years to depict the Swede’s victories and successes. Usually, the Swede lost. He goes soft on a dame, Kitty (Ava Gardner of “Whistle Stop”) and takes a fall for her so that she won’t land in prison. The remainder of “The Killers” deals with caper that Big Jim cooks up. When the Swede joins them, he is surprised to see Kitty as Big Jim’s squeeze. Later, Big Jim and the Swede fight over a card game. Big Jim hates the Swede and tries to cut him out of the robbery. The Swede trumps him because Kitty tells him about the new rendezvous and he swipes the $250-thousand from Colfax, Clarke, and Blinky.
“The Killers” qualifies as a top-notch film noir caper. Burt Lancaster became a star as did his co-star Ava Gardner. The irony is the Swede never had a chance with Kitty. He took a dive for her and she still tricked him. The theme of fate pervades “The Killers.” The Swede knows he’ll never escape either fate or the gunsels. Siodmak coaxes solid performances from a talented cast. Lancaster is simply dazzling as the thick headed Swede who goes dizzy over Kitty and is destroyed by her treachery. Ava Gardner looks spectacular as the cunning Kitty, while Albert Dekker is appropriately perfidious as Colfax. He uses Kitty to trick not only the Swede into thinking that he has robbed Colfax and his pals, but also he eliminates his conspirators—Dum Dum and Blinky—by letting the Swede take the loot. The plot twists and the ending when Kitty finds her neck finally caught in the noose of fate is outstanding. Film noir not only cheats the villains but it also cheats Riordan. Initially, Riordan is elated because he solved the six-year old robbery, but Kenyon points out:"Owing to your splendid efforts, the basic rate of the Atlantic Casualty Company as of 1947 will probably drop one-tenth of a cent." “The Killers” is powerful stuff.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
FILM REVIEW OF ''FACE/OFF" (1997)
No, surgeons cannot carve your face off and graft it onto somebody else like they do to John Travolta and Nicolas Cage in “Face/Off,” a provocative, high-voltage crime thriller. Surgeons may eventually perfect this operation, but for now it is impossible. Just because real surgeons cannot cut off faces and slap them onto other people, however, need not deter their ersatz Hollywood counterparts. Face swapping makes for an audacious movie premise, especially when it plays a key part in the razzle-dazzle, bullet-riddled duel of champions from celebrated Hong Kong action helmer John Woo. If you’ve seen the Jean-Claude Van Damme thriller “Hard Target” or the previous Travolta epic “Broken Arrow,” you’ve been Woo-ed. If you’ve never rented Woo’s super-charged video classics, such as “The Killer,” “A Better Tomorrow,” and “Hard Boiled,” you’ve missed some of the coolest thrillers since “Miami Vice” left the airwaves.
Nicolas Cage is cast as the insanely evil terrorist Castor Troy. Troy shoots Federal Agent Sean Archer (John Travolta of “Broken Arrow”), but his bullet passes through Archer and kills Archer’s young son Michael. Archer has made it his crusade to capture Castor Troy. Six year later, Archer catches up with him. Castor has just planted a bomb with a plague that’s “a tad worse than Gulf War Syndrome.” Before Castor can fly away, a task force of choppers, cars, and SWAT sharpshooters converge on the airport. This scene evokes memories of the Bond movie “License to Kill.” Like the Bond villain, Castor finds his jet stopped and the Feds swarming over it. He manages to kill a few before he is trapped in the deadly draft of a wind tunnel.
Everybody cheers Sean Archer. Castor lies in a coma, while his brother Pollux Troy (Alessandro Nivola in an effective performance) rots in prison. When the Feds inspect Troy’s plane, they discover a computer disc and learn about a dedly bomb. Just when Archer thought it was safe to cross the street, BOOM! An initial dragnet of Castor’s accomplices yields a date, but Pollus refuses to talk. At least to anyone other than his brother Castor. That’s when a black bag, super-secret operation is mounted. Hollis Miller (CCH Pounders of “RoboCop 3”) persuades Archer to swap mugs with Troy. With the specter of a devastating plague in L.A., Archer consent to their harebrained scheme.
The ingenious Mike Werb and Michael Colleary screenplay piles on absurdities galore with the same reckless abandon that some fast food restaurants heap on the lettuce, pickles, and tomatoes. “Face/Off” (***1/2 out of ****) spins itself off of the well worn plot when the good guy has to go so deep undercover that the only people who can help him are the first ones who the villains slay. If you’ve seen Burt Reynolds in Joseph Sargent’s “White Lightning” (1973), or Paul Newman in John Huston’s “The MacKintosh Man” (1973), or Johnny Depp in the recent Al Pacino caper “Donnie Brasco,” you know the plot basics. “Face/Off” is an unbelievable thriller that dresses itself up with realism. Even if half of the stuff in “Face/Off” couldn’t happen, director John Woo stages it so that it looks not only pictorially possible but visually splendid. The idea that John Travolta and Nicolas Cage can swap bodies is hokum of a clever but far-fetched nature. So the moviemakers rely on the indulgence of the audience. Of course, Travolta cannot become anything like Cage. But it’s fun to see how their characters change in this out-of-body experience. And the moviemakers go a step further when they include a surgical scene that is an homage to those old Hammer horror movies when Dr. Frankenstein dunked everything in a fish tank!
If you like movies where the heroes spend a lot of time trading shots with each other, “Face/Off” should be the right caliber for you. The arsenal of weapons is impressive; especially Castor Troy’s matched brace of gold-plated automatic pistols. Werb and Colleary chart the vendetta between Archer and Troy in a series of deliriously poetic shoot-outs that resemble a Sergio Leone extravaganza. You see bullets after they have been discharged leaving the barrel. Whenever it looks like it’s going to run out of plot, “Face/Off” loosens a burst or two of ammo in a gunfight. You get to see a lot of reloading close-ups. Every time a bullet hits anything, whatever it struck erupts into a fountain of shards. And then you have the cameras gliding through all of this mayhem with stunt people jerking and tumbling, shell casings flying, and guys dodging bullets. Woo surprisingly keeps blood and gore to a minimum.
The heroes and villains in “Face/Off” want to destroy each other. Archer is the straight-arrow hero and Troy is the villain. It’s a classic example of the struggle between good and evil. As villains go, Troy is mean to the marrow. He drips evil in a slinky, malignant way. He revels in violence for fun and profit. “Face/Off” tampers little with this image, except where Troy shows concern for his younger brother Pollux by constantly tying his shoes. When Castor gets his comeuppance, you want to cheer because he grows increasingly slimy as the plot thickens.
John Travolta alternates between jaw clenched expressions of rage and soul searching displays of agony. He allows his commitment to the law drive him beyond it. His heroism is tainted by grief for his dead son and his desire to kill Castor. This is one of Travolta’s more toxic performances, especially when he absorbs Castor’s personality.
The undersea prison in “Face/Off” is straight out of a sci-fi movie and another subtle hint about what director John Woo faced if he had remained in Hong Kong. In this prison, which is constructed of steel, the convicts wear steel boots. When a riot breaks out, the guards magnetize the convicts’ boots and zap them with cattle prods. The symbolism of “Face/Off” is fundamental. Woo shows us that there is a little good and evil in us all. When Travolta’s Archer agonizes about the plastic surgery, he says he’s being forced to break the laws that he has been sworn to uphold. He changes more than his face literally to crush evil. He proves this when he uses Castor’s henchmen against his own FBI agents who surround Castor. The filmmakers have a field day with the face symbolism here. The Archers’ use—both husband Sean and his wife—of a hand swipe over their respective faces to restore cheer to themselves in a pre-duel showdown is an example. Castor and Archer in different bodies aim their guns at each other with only a mirror standing between them. The subtle irony that they are going to shoot the evil in the mirror that each reflects but that their bullets may kill the real source of evil on the other side is pretty heavyweight stuff for a summer Hollywood blockbuster.
The worst thing you can say about “Face/Off” is that it never knows when the break it off. There are about five ballet-like staged shoot-outs between Travolta and Cage. Each gunfight resembles pyrotechnical pistolero polkas complete with fireball explosions. Everybody sprays hail storms of lead and everything get the confetti shot out of it. As the reigning maestro of movie violence, Woo has few equals. “Face/Off” emerges as an acrobatic ode to male violence. There is a frantic boat chase with a subsequent fireball explosion, and a prison riot and their portrayal are so fanciful that you forget that you’re watching a crime thriller.
For those who demand happy endings, “Face/Off” features a happy ending. The film also contains some socially approved messages which right-wing critics will no doubt overlook. Characters in “Face/Off” who smoke cigarettes are warned that tobacco products will kill them. A little boy is reprimanded for playing with a gun. Finally, “Face/Off” bristles with that signature John Woo image that seems to be plastered over every movie rental video box: a Mexican stand-off where two guys point guns at each other. If you don’t think that John Woo’s actioneers haven’t influenced Hollywood, you should now!
Nicolas Cage is cast as the insanely evil terrorist Castor Troy. Troy shoots Federal Agent Sean Archer (John Travolta of “Broken Arrow”), but his bullet passes through Archer and kills Archer’s young son Michael. Archer has made it his crusade to capture Castor Troy. Six year later, Archer catches up with him. Castor has just planted a bomb with a plague that’s “a tad worse than Gulf War Syndrome.” Before Castor can fly away, a task force of choppers, cars, and SWAT sharpshooters converge on the airport. This scene evokes memories of the Bond movie “License to Kill.” Like the Bond villain, Castor finds his jet stopped and the Feds swarming over it. He manages to kill a few before he is trapped in the deadly draft of a wind tunnel.
Everybody cheers Sean Archer. Castor lies in a coma, while his brother Pollux Troy (Alessandro Nivola in an effective performance) rots in prison. When the Feds inspect Troy’s plane, they discover a computer disc and learn about a dedly bomb. Just when Archer thought it was safe to cross the street, BOOM! An initial dragnet of Castor’s accomplices yields a date, but Pollus refuses to talk. At least to anyone other than his brother Castor. That’s when a black bag, super-secret operation is mounted. Hollis Miller (CCH Pounders of “RoboCop 3”) persuades Archer to swap mugs with Troy. With the specter of a devastating plague in L.A., Archer consent to their harebrained scheme.
The ingenious Mike Werb and Michael Colleary screenplay piles on absurdities galore with the same reckless abandon that some fast food restaurants heap on the lettuce, pickles, and tomatoes. “Face/Off” (***1/2 out of ****) spins itself off of the well worn plot when the good guy has to go so deep undercover that the only people who can help him are the first ones who the villains slay. If you’ve seen Burt Reynolds in Joseph Sargent’s “White Lightning” (1973), or Paul Newman in John Huston’s “The MacKintosh Man” (1973), or Johnny Depp in the recent Al Pacino caper “Donnie Brasco,” you know the plot basics. “Face/Off” is an unbelievable thriller that dresses itself up with realism. Even if half of the stuff in “Face/Off” couldn’t happen, director John Woo stages it so that it looks not only pictorially possible but visually splendid. The idea that John Travolta and Nicolas Cage can swap bodies is hokum of a clever but far-fetched nature. So the moviemakers rely on the indulgence of the audience. Of course, Travolta cannot become anything like Cage. But it’s fun to see how their characters change in this out-of-body experience. And the moviemakers go a step further when they include a surgical scene that is an homage to those old Hammer horror movies when Dr. Frankenstein dunked everything in a fish tank!
If you like movies where the heroes spend a lot of time trading shots with each other, “Face/Off” should be the right caliber for you. The arsenal of weapons is impressive; especially Castor Troy’s matched brace of gold-plated automatic pistols. Werb and Colleary chart the vendetta between Archer and Troy in a series of deliriously poetic shoot-outs that resemble a Sergio Leone extravaganza. You see bullets after they have been discharged leaving the barrel. Whenever it looks like it’s going to run out of plot, “Face/Off” loosens a burst or two of ammo in a gunfight. You get to see a lot of reloading close-ups. Every time a bullet hits anything, whatever it struck erupts into a fountain of shards. And then you have the cameras gliding through all of this mayhem with stunt people jerking and tumbling, shell casings flying, and guys dodging bullets. Woo surprisingly keeps blood and gore to a minimum.
The heroes and villains in “Face/Off” want to destroy each other. Archer is the straight-arrow hero and Troy is the villain. It’s a classic example of the struggle between good and evil. As villains go, Troy is mean to the marrow. He drips evil in a slinky, malignant way. He revels in violence for fun and profit. “Face/Off” tampers little with this image, except where Troy shows concern for his younger brother Pollux by constantly tying his shoes. When Castor gets his comeuppance, you want to cheer because he grows increasingly slimy as the plot thickens.
John Travolta alternates between jaw clenched expressions of rage and soul searching displays of agony. He allows his commitment to the law drive him beyond it. His heroism is tainted by grief for his dead son and his desire to kill Castor. This is one of Travolta’s more toxic performances, especially when he absorbs Castor’s personality.
The undersea prison in “Face/Off” is straight out of a sci-fi movie and another subtle hint about what director John Woo faced if he had remained in Hong Kong. In this prison, which is constructed of steel, the convicts wear steel boots. When a riot breaks out, the guards magnetize the convicts’ boots and zap them with cattle prods. The symbolism of “Face/Off” is fundamental. Woo shows us that there is a little good and evil in us all. When Travolta’s Archer agonizes about the plastic surgery, he says he’s being forced to break the laws that he has been sworn to uphold. He changes more than his face literally to crush evil. He proves this when he uses Castor’s henchmen against his own FBI agents who surround Castor. The filmmakers have a field day with the face symbolism here. The Archers’ use—both husband Sean and his wife—of a hand swipe over their respective faces to restore cheer to themselves in a pre-duel showdown is an example. Castor and Archer in different bodies aim their guns at each other with only a mirror standing between them. The subtle irony that they are going to shoot the evil in the mirror that each reflects but that their bullets may kill the real source of evil on the other side is pretty heavyweight stuff for a summer Hollywood blockbuster.
The worst thing you can say about “Face/Off” is that it never knows when the break it off. There are about five ballet-like staged shoot-outs between Travolta and Cage. Each gunfight resembles pyrotechnical pistolero polkas complete with fireball explosions. Everybody sprays hail storms of lead and everything get the confetti shot out of it. As the reigning maestro of movie violence, Woo has few equals. “Face/Off” emerges as an acrobatic ode to male violence. There is a frantic boat chase with a subsequent fireball explosion, and a prison riot and their portrayal are so fanciful that you forget that you’re watching a crime thriller.
For those who demand happy endings, “Face/Off” features a happy ending. The film also contains some socially approved messages which right-wing critics will no doubt overlook. Characters in “Face/Off” who smoke cigarettes are warned that tobacco products will kill them. A little boy is reprimanded for playing with a gun. Finally, “Face/Off” bristles with that signature John Woo image that seems to be plastered over every movie rental video box: a Mexican stand-off where two guys point guns at each other. If you don’t think that John Woo’s actioneers haven’t influenced Hollywood, you should now!
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