Equally revered and reviled, Face/Off is emblematic of the overblown but undercooked action films that were dominating theaters in the late 90s. Director John Woo was already a legend back in Hong Kong, but he never had as much luck with his American-made films. This is definitely the best of that bunch, but one of the running themes in this episode is why so much of his style gets lost in the translation. There's also the Travolta/Cage of it all. Action movies aren't the only thing that's changed in the two decades since this was released. Our attitude towards these leading man has also shifted pretty dramatically. This represents a pretty interesting point in both of their careers and it's difficult not to let some of the present day baggage cast a shadow over their work here. Topics include: the two A-listers initially approached to star in this, why the original plan to set this in the future would have solved 80% of this story's logic issues, the much simpler way to get Pollux to talk, some baffling studio notes that Woo wisely ignored, why the action scenes in the back-half are beautiful but uninvolving, the confusing alternate ending, and much much more!

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