John Woo’s best American film to date, Paramount releases an HD-DVD 2-Disc Special Collector’s Edition of ‘Face Off’ with all of the virtuoso camerawork, over-the-top action and insane performances completely intact with the added bonus of every explosion and spray of bullets being in glorious high-definition.
Amazingly, John Woo’s third US pic ‘Face Off’ (after ‘Hard Target’ and ‘Broken Arrow’) is already a decade old. Released in the years that included other over-the-top action extravagances such as ‘The Rock’, ‘Con Air’ and ‘Broken Arrow’, ‘Face Off’ has aged the best amongst this late-nineties bonehead era of action films as it revels in the ridiculousness and fun of it all with two actors more than willing to wink at their own personas in a time when it was badly needed.
Woo, who has yet to make an American film since the one-two punch commercial debacles that was 02’s ‘Windtalkers’ and 03’s ‘Paycheck’, was perfect for this material. Applying his dazzling camerawork and grace to the action sequences and smartly letting the reins loose on John Travolta and Nicolas Cage proved to be a combustible choice. Almost operatic at times, with both the action and the melodrama cranked up to a continuous buzz, the film works best if you just suspend disbelief and go along for the rollercoaster ride.
With a style that recalls classic musicals, Leone, Peckinpah and Melville, Woo grabs us from the first moments of the credit sequence as we witness a stached Nicolas Cage fully investing in the character of Castor Troy, a maniacal criminal who takes up a sniping position to get rid of FBI agent Sean Archer (Travolta) as he affectionately plays with his young son on a carousel. The shot rings out and Travolta survives a bullet that enters and exits his chest but his son is not as lucky.
The film cuts to six years later and Archer, a higher-up in the L.A.-based anti-terrorism unit, is still obsessed with revenge. Pale-faced and seemingly always exhausted, Archer has spent six restless years depriving his wife Eve (Joan Allen) and teenage daughter Jamie (Dominique Swain) of any time together as his one concern is the capture or death of Castor Troy.
His vendetta ostensibly comes to a close after a breathless action set piece that would serve just fine as another film’s climax. Castor Troy and his gang of minions including his younger, slightly-off brother Pollux Troy (Alessandro Nivola) attempt to take off on a private jet but gets thwarted by Archer’s team where after many bloody deaths later, Archer is able to take care of his nemesis.
An effective sequence after Archer’s apparent success finds Archer detailing to his wife that it’s over; he can finally let go and settle into a safe desk position. But, of course, one last mission will need to be taken care of. Archer finds out that Castor has been kept alive as a turnip which will allow a fantastic procedure to take place. The Troy brothers have planted a gas bomb somewhere in L.A. and only Castor’s brother Pollux is aware of the details.
With Pollux proving to be completely unhelpful and shipped off to a maximum-security prison, a plan is formulated to transfer Castor’s face, voice and other key physical aspects to Archer with a deliriously insane surgical procedure so Archer can infiltrate the prison as Castor and learn the details of the bomb that “Hell-A deserves…”
The surgical sequence, while far-fetched, is directed with just the right amount of reveal. The make-up effects hold up quite well if the science, of course, doesn’t. Archer, now in the guise of Castor, is sent to the maximum security prison that holds Pollux where Cage now gets to act the good guy in the early scenes and Archer gets to let loose as the bad guy. The prison has slight sci-fi elements carried over from a previous version of the script that had the story set in the future, magnetized boots and so on.
With a faceless Castor Troy now laying as a turnip in a medical facility, one guess what happens...an admittedly absurd plot development now allows Castor to demand Archer’s visage and physical attributes where Castor now takes over Archer’s life in an amusing set of sequences where Archer appears to have loosened up in his work and with his family – meaning a sick glee that Castor as Archer partakes in as he beds Archer’s wife and makes inappropriate behaviors around his daughter.
The second half of the pic doesn’t flow quite as confident as the first half with most of the interest lying in the wildly drawn-out action sequences instead of equal concentration on the performances. The narrative from this point on pretty much builds as you would expect with Archer forced to break out of prison, convince his wife that he’s actually Archer and confront his long-time nemesis with many an action sequence along the way.
When Woo’s talent for poetic, kinetic action is combined with actors that know how to take full advantage of it, the effects can be startling...Chow Yun Fat broke the mold with Woo in the ‘A Better Tomorrow’ flicks, ‘The Killer’ and ‘Hard Boiled’. No one can pay attention to plot holes when there’s that much badass carnage happening onscreen and I think ‘Face/Off’ comes the closest to matching those sensibilities. When actors try to take it too seriously however, the results end up ludicrous (‘Hard Target’ and ‘M:I 2’, I’m looking at you...ignoring Woo’s flourish-free stab at legitimacy with ‘Windtalkers’ where Cage had his hands tied).
That being said, bringing in Joan Allen was a very strong move as she does bring a certain weight to the picture, grounds it and counter-balances it; that way it’s not just two big stars having fun. When both Travolta or Cage share screen time with her, the domestic scenes take on a resonance they may not have had with a lesser actress. John Powell’s score is also a very effective tool in adding some substance to the pic – pounding during the action scenes but notably pleasant during the melodrama.
Paramount gives a great 2.35:1 VC-1 HD widescreen transfer to ‘Face Off’ with a very detailed and sharp picture. A tough film to compress with its fair share of fast movements and explosions, I couldn’t spot a single compression issue. There were a few specks and a little grain but not unexpected for a decade-old film – very well done transfer. Paramount provides two notable audio tracks: English Dolby Digital Plus EX 5.1 and English DTS ES 6.1. The DTS track is predictably louder and has the nice addition of a rear center channel but both audio tracks will serve you well.
Special Features are all presented in HD and spread across two discs with Disc One sporting two audio commentary tracks and seven Deleted Scenes including an alternate ending. The first commentary features John Woo and the writers Mike Werb and Michael Colleary and the second commentary features just the writers. Okay for fans, there are a few dry spots here with the writers covering a lot of the same ground on the two commentaries. The alternate ending is fascinating but was wisely cut.
On Disc Two, we get an hour-long doc ‘The Light and Dark: The Making of Face/Off’ that’s divided into five parts. A lot of interesting stuff here for fans including interviews with cast and crew and the tidbit that the script started out as heavy sci-fi, but Woo had no interest in sci-fi and wanted to humanize it.
In addition, we also get the thirty-minute ‘John Woo: A Life in Pictures’, a doc focusing on Woo’s early life, how he got into cinema, and coverage of a lot of big pictures up to the point of ‘M:I 2’. Nothing particularly meaty here for established Woo fans but a nice addition for casual fans. A trailer finished off the extras.
For those willing to look, the film does have many flaws – the logistics of the plot, distracting stunt men that look NOTHING like Cage or Travolta (I mean come on...they can’t even get their hair cut to match Cage’s?) – but ultimately this is a rollercoaster ride that is not meant to be dwelled on. You pay your money, you sit in the seat, you have a blast, and you get up and leave...that’s it.
The energy of the direction and the performances of Cage and Travolta should easily be able to get you over any rough spots. With a great HD transfer and a decent amount of HD-enhanced extras, Woo’s best American film comes easily recommended for its HD debut.
Face Off [HD DVD] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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