That always makes me think of the sitcom Red Dwarf and the episode "Justice", where a futuristic prison has robotic boots to control their inmates, leading to some pretty hilarious walking scenes. 😂
Maybe its just because this is around the same time period of filming, but this makes me think of "Broken Arrow" with Travolta and Christian Slater. HIGHLY recommend that movie. Its got the same kinda level of crazy shit happening, and a GREAT score.
Lovely reaction - "I could listen to trivia all day" - immortal words lol - the 90s saw a huge influence of recent HK cinema on Hollywood, midwifed by emerging indie adherents like Tarantino, so when John Woo arrived, it was sort of like Hollywood had been waiting for him, and this is the movie that most successfully translates his bizarre sentimental-kinetic HK vibe into Hollywood terms - and I just realized the 00s equivalent of this would be The Departed, another HK import w exchanging doppelganger adversaries - is this some kind of Yin Yang thing that we just can't get enough of over here lol - the ultimate sci fi take on twins is Cronenberg's Dead Ringers, which is also his masterpiece, w Irons giving one (or two) of the top 5 performances ever committed to film - another lovely take is Cage's own Adaptation - another sort of equivalent here is a particular sort of disguise film that calls attention to and celebrates the art of acting itself - the best aspect of this film is our joy in watching them enacting their impersonations, acting out these roles, savoring the layers and nuances; we enjoy their display of virtuosity the way we might thrill at the supple intricacy of 2 master basketball players, and the outrageousness of the movie somehow heightens this aspect that we're all just coasting together w the 2 actors on the giddy fun of it all - the 80s equivalent of that might be Tootsie - a case could be made for Face/Off as the most brilliantly cloying and hamfisted film ever made - maybe the only film that can even be described that way, at least the only American one - it feels more like a tour de force HK actioner from the 80s
This was peak 90s action thriller with director John Woo as the hot property of the time. Like, the Mission Impossible franchise couldn't resist the zeitgeist.
Please George, if they skip the intro, they don't get the intro info. Why repeat it to let them get away with skipping the intro. Why punish those of us that watched the intro!?!?
They repeat it because they are nice people throwing just a couple of phrases so everyone can catch up. How is that a punishment for you? hahahaha, go touch grass or something.
one of my fav john woo flicks is "The Big Hit" if you like his style it should be watched 100% not a popular movie so it may not be good for the channel but its worth a watch.
True story time, Cage and Travolta weren't the originally intended stars for this and when they cast them both there were concerns that the two actors wouldn't get along. Both have their famous and infamous on-set stories to contend with but they got along REALLY well and started bonding over each others quirks and film roles within minutes of being together. This amazing chemistry really carried this movie as you can tell they're both having an absolute blast in both of them getting to play the hero AND the villain.
I read a great quote from Travolta, that he showed up on set his first day, intending to talk to Cage about their characters' history, mannerisms, what they would take from each others' performances - and watched Cage shoot the choir scene, and said, "Oh, THAT'S how we're gonna do it. Ok, then."
Two of the greatest over-actors get to spend the length of a film pretending to be the other guy…. How anyone isn’t entertained by this premise, I’ll never understand.
I worked on this! We made all the face/off effects. Duplicate bodies for Travolta and Cage. I specifically did the mechanical elements underneath the skin that makes them seem alive and asleep. Good times. The painters and hair people worked for weeks making them look perfect.
I think this movie doesn't get enough credit for what the actors had to do to play their roles. You had to know and understand the other character well enough to know how they would play your original character. It's so very interesting.
If I remember correctly, Travolta thought this was going to be a "phone it in, throw it away movie" that would make a few bucks and be totally forgotten. But when he arrived on set and saw some dailies of Cage's early scenes, he literally said, "OK - I guess we're actually going all out on this one." Cage's lunacy really ramped up Travolta's performance.
@@jp3813 It's not my claim - Travolta said that himself in an interview. Whether or not he was embellishing is for any individual to decide. Since the premise was so silly, I can totally see him thinking that going in.
@@cliffendicott7832 Well, you said "if I remember correctly". So i was just proposing the possibility that he didn't say that exactly, or at least meant it differently.
This is one of those movie premises where I'm sure everyone in Hollywood shot it down for being too ridiculous, but we the audience were like, "I don't care. I will grant you the ridiculousness. I just want to see what happens."
The screenplay was written as SciFi set in the future, but when Woo got offered the job as director he convinced the producers to spend the money on the action scenes, rather than on creating a convincing SciFi setting (with lots of VFX).
I like how the poster shows the actors playing the characters after the switch. That’s why Cage looks so sympathetic around the eyes and Travolta looks evil
I don't know... Cage's pupils are super dilated, despite the bright studio light being reflected (all of which could be post-production). So whichever character he is, he's high as a kite!
YES, you just completed one of the best runs of any actor ever: The Rock, Con Air and Face/Off were filmed and released in a single year (from mid 1996 to mid 1997) and after that Nic got superstar status. It remains to this day an impressive achievement in many ways specially for the action genre. Also, i think you are the only reactors that completed this run in chronological order (not that it matters but it is cool).
Yeah, this run was what made me a Nic cage fan. I saw him as this action star first, then as a serious actor 😆 Another great run was Mel Gibson. He is the only actor who on a 1 year run, had 3 movies come out and make +100m at the box office. They were all in different genres as well. He was on top of the world and then he went on his famous drunken rant 🤦♂️ The Patriot (epic, action Drama) Chicken Run (stop motion comedy) What Women Want (chick flick comedy) Orlando Bloom had a crazy run also with Black Hawk Down, LOTR Trilogy and Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy
John Travolta trying his best to outcrazy over-the-top actor Nicolas Cage himself. Amazing stuff right there! Also, in this movie, the studio basically told John Woo, "You know what? It's all yours, you have ALL the control." This movie really is an example of why studios should give the directors more creative control. Well, the good directors.
Don't worry George. Learning that Rocky IV is about a US USSR fight or that Face/Off is about trading faces isn't a spoiler. I mean it's heavily advertised as the premise of the films.
T2 was heavily advertised as "this time he's the good guy", but it was _intended_ to be a Big Reveal. Film and TV trailers spoil crap _all_ the time, which is why I hardly ever watch them anymore.
George: "I'm fairly sure that's not how that works, there's connective tissue-" No, George. If you pull the skin on your nose hard you will notice that your face will sort of tent out from your head and will be all loose and hang down and you won't be able to see out your eyes anymore because your forehead will sort of hang down and block it. That's totally how it works.
If they were going to ever remake this, Robert Downey Jr and Tom Cruise would have been perfect but they're both too old now for this type of movie IMO, maybe 10 years ago.
The charm of this movie is how over the top, preposterous, and melodramatic it is. Just like his Hong Kong movies but with a bigger budget and American actors.
This movie is over the top ridiculous, but it makes me genuinely love the characters. There are also a lot of little things I love about the writing, such as how important the wife's role is later in the film and how her treatment at the hands of Troy is taken seriously. I love showing this movie to friends who have no idea about the concept and then seeing the ARE YOU SERIOUS??? reaction when they put the pieces together.
This is John Woo's 3rd Hollywood film after Hard Target (1993) & Broken Arrow (1996), which also stars Travolta. I believe this is Cage's first time (edit: apparently not) playing a villain, even though he spends most of the runtime playing the hero. Other famous director trademarks I know are: Spielberg = spheres/circles, Hitchcock = blondes, Nolan = drowning, Shyamalan = twists, Abrams = lens flare, De Palma = POV shots, Zemeckis = lightning, Burton = gothic atmosphere, Raimi = kinetic camerawork, Chan = fight scene props, etc...
I thought Spielberg's "trademark" is a shooting star, he caught one on film naturally in Jaws and ever since he's added one to most (all?) of his movies using special effects.
Nicolas Cage played the bad guy in the movie, Kiss Of Death (1995), opposite to David Caruso from the TV series CSI: Miami. Cage also sports a great goatee.
I just watched the best Nic Cage movie the other day. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call: New Orleans. Its sooo fucking funny. The cast is stacked, and Cage's performance is so wild. He's basically a piece of shit cop, and he's got a messed up back, so his left shoulder is always higher than his other one. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a wild Nic Cage performance.
Less than 8 years after this film released, the first partial face transplant took place in France in 2005. The patient was Isabelle Dinoire (1967-2016).
its funny that they ask about the scar being on his chest and that is what the wife could notice ........ what about the fact that unless Shawn and Castor have the same exact D then she should have noticed that wasnt her husband right away.
Actually what's impressive about his performance in this movie is not him as an unhinged lunatic, which he's done a thousand times, but his scenes where he's playing Travolta's character. Travota is way harder to imitate than Cage. Travolta himself says that Cage had the much tougher acting assignment.
It's really fascinating how much of his career Cage has spent exploring one emotion - wild screaming. After a couple of movies I noticed that every time he went into a full screaming fit, he did it DIFFERENTLY, in a way that fit this particular character and these particular circumstances. A lot of actors can really capture subtle nuances of quiet emotion, but Cage is the only one I can think of who can capture subtle nuances at the top of his lungs.
@@joemason6319 It's actually more fascinating how you don't know anything about Nicolas Cage's career, yet are commenting as if you do! Your problem? You have little boy tastes and probably only see him in dopey "action" movies like this one. Just in the 80s alone, he had a wide range of character portrayals and if there's any "one thing" that he's spent exploring, it's idiosyncratic behavior, not "wild screaming". Poor Joe, a swing and a miss, pal!
@@joemason6319 PS: Dopey Joe, he's not doing much "wild screaming" in this movie, is he? The "wild screaming" comes from John Travolta acting like Nick Cage; Nicolas Cage spends most of the time NOT screaming! He spends it imitating John Travolta........which is the MUCH harder acting job, doofus!
Fun fact: The song Cage keeps singing, 🎶 Ready, ready for the big ride baby 🎶 Cage made it up on the spot and everyone on the set was worried about the copyright. Cage assured them he made it up on the spot.
It's been normalized now, but in the '90s teenagers having a lot of makeup and face piercings was a lot less common, and usually a sign that the kid was acting out or being rebellious in some way. In this case, the point wasn't that the makeup/piercings were extreme, so much as that they weren't normal for Jamie, and were her way of dealing with her trauma at losing her brother and her difficult home life. Hence why we don't see them at the end, because she's comfortable with being her true self again.
Wes Anderson is known for trying to have symmetry in a lot of his shots. And Sofia Coppola always has her characters looking out windows, contemplating things.
Stanley Kubrick has the Kubrick Stare. Think Jack Nicholson in The Shining or Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. He didn't invent it - it's also the final shot of Psycho for instance - but he sure loved to use it.
Yeah, as awesome as both actors were, I was in awe of how perfectly Travolta nailed Cage's personality, mannerisms, and body language. In the prison scene between Troy and his brother, it felt like I was literally listening to Cage even though it was actually Travolta mimicking him! lol But it never felt like mimickry. I personally think this is is one of Travolta's top 3 film performances along with Blow Out and Pulp Fiction. Cage was of course superb as well. Also, this film is easily John Woo's best American movie, imo.
Being 16 and seeing this movie on the big screen, this was the coolest shit back then and it aged beautifully. Great dumb action cinema. And this is the one that brought the slomo dove scene to america.
This film is were Nic Cage started showing his craziness. This and Con Air are my favourite movies of his. Honorable mention Snake Eyes, Gone in Sixty Seconds, and The Rock.
This is, by far, John Woo's best American made movie. If you want to see his best movie ever, watch Hard Boiled or The Killer. Both were made in Hong Kong prior to his American debut.
John Woo and Chow Yun Fat (star of "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled") were huge in Asia and had a cult following in the west (which included Samuel L. Jackson who mentioned them when he told David Letterman that he liked going to theaters in Chinatown to watch Hong Kong action movies), but "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled" were the movies that started getting them known to mainstream American audiences. They and "A Better Tomorrow" are still my favorite John Woo movies.
I am so happy that Simone laughed at "Sasha, what the fuck are you doing here?" as that is my single favorite line delivery from John Travolta across his entire filmography.
I remember Sharon Stone going on David Letterman and exclaiming, "Wow! When they say Face/Off they really mean face off. I mean literally FACE . . . OFF!" Letterman was like, "Yeah, okay, I get it."
There are only a few movies that are pure 90s like this film is. To the point there are 90s films all connected in the same universe. The common traits are quirky, fashionable, slightly unrealistic science, and intelligent drama.
I don't know if it was intended at the time, but what the peach emoji is used for now gives me a whole new meaning to "I could eat a peach for hours". 🍑
