Review of Face/Off

Face/Off (1997)
6/10
This aged terribly, but it's fun
8 March 2020
Growing up in the 90s, I had heard this movie mentioned by a lot of average joes as being an awesome movie, commonly revered in conversation. The core of my formative movie-viewing experience comes from this time period (late-90s to early-2000s). But I missed this one.

I often watch old movies and have no problem adjusting my expectations to the time period, almost all movies are timeless to me.

However, I first watched this in 2012 and...my goodness...the action is severely dated and so over-the-top and awful it comes off as campy. The single-sample-non-variant gunfire audio alone is enough to make me laugh; they should update these sounds if/when they make a 4K transfer. Watch it and you'll see what I mean. The above doesn't help when the main plot is already trying to walk a fine line between acceptable and ridiculous, and there are enough plot holes to drive a boat chase through. Throw in Nicholas Cage and John Travolta, who at the time were not both widely panned by critics (personally I like them sometimes), and you have something...epic. Not "epic" as in a great movie, but "epic" in an entertaining and different way.

I assume Hollywood will probably reboot this movie in the coming decade. Could be good.
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