Continuing the thriller style action movies, (we had Munich last week), tonight we had the delights of the 1997 movie;
Face/Off
Well, it was an action packed thriller, with plenty of blood, guts, bullets, fire, explosions and unlikely goings on.
It was also bloody good!
The premise of the movie is that super FBI Agent Sean Archer, played ably by John Travolta, is out to revenge the accidental killing of his Son, by the super villain, Castor Troy, played superbly by Nicolas Cage.
Archer finally gets his man in the first part of the film and we think that justice is done. Not so.
A large bomb, set by Troy and his brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola), is set to blow downtown LA sky high. Castor Troy is dead (or is he....?) and Pollux isn't talking. None of the Troy gang members know anything. So, the only thing left to do is..............
OK, this is where the films trips off into the realms of pseudo fantasy and surrealism. Apprently, Castor Troy has been kept alive on life support and pioneering Doctors working for the FBI can carry out face transplants. So what better way to find out the location and nature of the bomb, than to turn Agent Archer into Castor Troy, by transplanting their faces!!
Yes, it is a little far-fetched. It was far-fetched in 1997 and it's still alittle far-fetched 14 years later! Matters not, go with it.
So, Agent Sean Archer now looks and sounds (oh yes, they can do the voice as well!!), like Castor Troy. Castor Troy is face less on life support in a hospital bed. Sean Archer's face is in a bowl of water, keeping fresh!
Sean Archer, now looking like Castor Troy, is shipped off to a high security prison, to meet up with Pollux Troy, to find about about the bomb. The prison knows nothing of the face change.
Next bizarre twist comes when the comatose body of Castor Troy wakes up! Not only does he wake up, he works out he is faceless and where the face of Sean Archer is and then gets his gang to kidnap the surgeon, who carried out the original transplant, to carry out a second one, thus making Castor Troy; Sean Archer!
Confused?
No, you'll be fine.
Not only does Castor Troy now look like Sean Archer, he kills the surgeon and all the FBI agents who were aware of the top secret face transplant programme!
That's what happens in the first half of the film. What follows is how they battle it out, to regain each others identity and for a super cop, who looks like a super villain, to capture a super villain, who likes a super cop!
The latter part of the film is an horrendous bloody battle with bullets and blood flying everywhere!
We enjoyed it. The bizarre premise of a face transplant, does bring rise to a wonderful juxtaposition between good and evil, cop against villain, but in different guises.
Travolta is great, Cage, who I'm not a big fan of, was actually really rather good. However, the film is one of those that you either love or hate, it's a typical Marmite movie.
If you haven't seen it, give it a try.
If you have seen it and didn't like it, see what we have next week!
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