Face/Off (1997) review

The airport scene and the boat chase are pure cinema. Both sequences feel huge because of the practical action, vehicles, explosions, stunt work, and the way John Woo stages everything with so much movement. The airport sequence especially feels like the movie announcing how ridiculous and massive it is going to be, while the boat chase just keeps escalating until it becomes complete action chaos. The action also kept giving me Mission: Impossible 2 vibes, especially with how exaggerated, stylish, and physical everything feels. And voila, when I checked the director’s filmography, they were actually made by the same person, John Woo! Suddenly the slow motion, explosive action, dramatic staging, and almost operatic way the characters move through the set pieces made complete sense. It is gruesome when they remove and replace the faces. I genuinely didn’t know the title was LITERAL! But I don’t know, this also feels like the kind of film you randomly stumble upon while channel surfing on cable. You start watching somewhere in the middle without knowing what the hell is happening, but there is enough gunfire, explosions, Nicolas Cage, and John Travolta acting crazy that you just leave it on until the end.