#1023 Iron Crown

#001 Lamball

this is what this movie was about to me

Behold!

The Red Hood helmet F A C E!!

Have you seen "Dream Scenario"?

Lmao

Realistically though, I didn't have the primal urge to go see it when it was released and at this point there's only one location in the LA county area playing it once a night so I'll wait for it to get to streaming

this is my favorite scene in the entire movie actually

There exists a category of films that, though usually not particularly good, are also very good by virtue of their zaniness and commitment to the bit. A lot of Zack Snyder (director who hasn't made a *good* film in ten years) movies fall into this category, where despite movies like Army of the Dead being objectively bad, Snyder's enthusiasm and artistic risks makes them worth watching even when the risks don't pay off and the "directors cut" gets advertised as better than the original movie before the film's even left theaters. This is, according to the nebulous definition of the term, what I believe to be "camp."

The Cage/Travolta action thriller film Face/Off falls into this same camp. In an exploration of almost Shakespearean switched identities, it's about a counterterror cop surgically swapping faces with a comatose 1990s professional terror mastermind (totally constitutional?) in order to infiltrate his group and stop a bombing, only for the terrorist to awake, swap on the lawman's face, and enact his own devious plan.

This is a deeply stupid movie. Despite being set in what is assumed to be the (late 90s) modern day, somehow we have the seamless voice change tech, surgical face transplant operations, and magnet boot prisons of sci-fi 20 years from now to make Travolta and Cage impersonating each other importance of being earnest style somehow make sense. Set this in the world of the 5th Element and it makes sense. Set it in a world where we still drive Chevy Tahoes and it makes less sense.

If I had to describe Face/Off to someone who has no idea who legendary director John Woo is, it would be something like if Baz Luhrmann did a Micheal Bay film with the cast of Swordfish. Which is to say a kind of bad film that's also kind of great, which is exactly why you should watch it.

some pedros

lol anyone in this thread seen face/off (1997)

#1019 Hydrapple

Hysham Hills Rest Area

can you explain why you like face-off?? curious lmao

GOOD QUESTION TY FOR ASKING <3

It isn't because it's a particularly good movie, or that the acting is amazing. I honestly just kinda like the symbolism and concept. It's a WILD ride of a movie and I like it most for the absolute buckwild execution <3

The concept of two guys switching faces is inherently so funny, but they made it an action movie. Not to mention they decided to cast Nicholas Cage and John Travolta as the two main characters. Sidebar, they wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger originally but he declined the role after reading the script. ANYWAY

The whole movie is hilarious, it's great fun if you don't take it too seriously. Beyond that, some of the things they do are kinda cool. Castor and Pollux Troy are a really interesting sibling dynamic, and I wish it got a little more runtime than it did. Castor clearly cares a lot for his brother (arguably he's the only person Castor cares about, considering the information we get about his son), and Pollux knows almost instantly that Sean is posing as Castor when they meet in prison. There's also a mention of Castor hand-feeding Pollux his pills, which is a wild departure from the priest-posing, gun-slinging, face-stealing sonofabitch we get throughout the course of the movie.

We also see a surprising amount of psychological turmoil when Sean goes through with the switch, especially once he gets freed from prison and meets Castor's pals. He is slowly losing his identity to the man that killed his only son, and this insanity and turmoil is what ultimately makes him believable to Castor's gang.

Castor's situation is a little different, we see him absolutely butcher a bureaucratic job when he assumes Sean's identity. This is expected, Castor doesn't do well with taking orders from higher-ups arbitrarily. We get surprising interactions between Castor and Sean's family though. You'd expect cold and uncaring, completely detached. He actually shows a surprising amount of concern for Sean's daughter, teaching her how to deal with pushy boys permanently (still one of my favorite scenes tbh). Sean's wife gets more passion than she has in a long time, which is absolutely hilarious to behold.

They also have some pretty cool religious symbolism here and there (mostly toward the end), and the scene where they're surrounded by mirrors is iconic for a reason. Confronting your enemy, and also yourself! (They are one and the same)

Tldr; it's a really funny watch when you don't take it seriously, and they do some interesting things psychologically if you want a deeper watch. It's a fun movie, that's why I like it. :]

Oh god what have i done this is too much power

Tee from Uncle Reco

Today we're repairing a gourd and watching the most batshit insane film I've seen in just AGES. Nic Cage and John Travolta getting to take turns playing the villain and the hero. Couldn't ask for a more perfect concept.

I might be one of the very few people in the audience to have known that the prison was on an offshore rig from the very start on the basis of its name alone. File that one under "gradientdescent has the weirdest assortment of life experiences"...