So I saw 'Face/Off'

On AXN. And I can't believe that it actually came out in 1997. That's like a lifetime ago.

Nicolas Cage (considering the movie's release year, fresh off The Rock [1996]) and John Travolta (milking the fame from Pulp Fiction [1994] for all it's worth) star in this action flick under the direction of John Woo. I never went to see it at the movie theatre, even if the thought must've had entertained me, and I think I know why.

First of all, Cage and Travolta, combined even, don't nearly command the amount of box office appeal that does it for me. Also, I wouldn't readily peg them as action movie stars, try as they may. Cage is more of a character actor (he was moving in Moonstruck [1987]), and Travolta will probably forever be remembered as the king of disco (and as the Blues Brothers-suit-wearing hit-man Vincent "our man in Amsterdam" Vega). And secondly, I have yet to warm to Mandarin/ Cantonese movies, which I think are often too flashy for their own good, and therefore annoying, and therefore Woo's name as director came as an added disincentive.

The flashiness literally starts from the get-go when the movie opens with a bright, fuzzy, bubbly image that fades out into a scene where we find Cage's ultimate villain Castor Troy on a hit mission targeting Travolta's ultimate good guy cop-chief Sean Archer, who we see on a merry-go-round with his kid son. Troy misses and the bullet accidentally kills Archer's son instead. Now that's enough drama right there to fuel you to the moon and back, let me tell you that.

Next we see Troy driving in a convertible on a tarmac where a private jet and a welcoming party consisting of his minions are awaiting him. The convertible breaks to a halt and as Troy steps out the movie breaks into slow motion and we see Troy's black overcoat flutter in slow motion like a desperado's in a western would at a climactic face-off. Except, here things have barely taken off, you haven't properly invested yourself emotionally in Troy (and you never will), and in effect it's as if the button on the slo-mo gizmo was hit almost at random (almost, the fluttering does look cool, sorta).

Troy walks to his minions and one of them hands him a wooden box, which apparently contains Troy's indispensable effects: some bric-a-brac, a half-empty pack of Chiclets, and two golden handguns. With all the fuss that's put into the scene you'd think that the Chiclets and the golden handguns will tie the story together nicely somewhere along the line, but Woo is having none of that.

Troy steps into the private jet but before it can take off along comes Archer with the cavalry to intercept. Archer does a lot of grimacing to show that he means business, but he fails of course and he has to watch Troy --who himself does a lot of laughing to show that he's indeed the baddy baddy we think him to be-- fly off into the friendly skies.

In the second act the movie recognizes itself for the silly caper it is as somehow Archer becomes Troy and vice versa through plastic surgery. From there it builds itself up to not one but two face-offs between the two and, yes, a happy ending, but certainly not before Troy (i.e. Archer) manages to escape from a prison taken straight out of a B-movie sci-fi.

This movie has an identity crisis.

(Running time: 138 minutes)