Nobody likes Face/Off

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Phoenix654

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Poll Nobody likes Face/Off (677 votes)

I enjoyed the film Face/Off 66%
I had no strong feeling one way or the other 12%
I did not enjoy the film Face/Off 7%
I have not seen Face/Off 14%

So, I had a weird interaction with someone on my Facebook friend's list (ie, someone I've met in person, but not seen in person in years and barely inteact with). They made the proclamation that, while people enjoy a television show called Faceoff, which I've never seen, no one likes Face/Off the movie, which I have seen and enjoy. I corrected their misapprehension which they refused to believe (the entirety of my response was, "I like the movie...").

I've always thought it was well liked, but perhaps I'm wrong. Do you like the film Face/Off, starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta as John Travolta and Nicolas Cage?

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Sinusoidal

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John Woo motherfucker! Face/Off isn't going to win any Oscars, but it is totally ridiculous and fun.

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glots

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In my past experience, people who are fans of John Woo's Hong Kong movies (The Killer, Hard Boiled) seem to largely agree, that this movie is trash. Me personally? I rented this movie at least 10 times as a kid and I'm pretty sure I never rented any other movies more than once, or at least not enough times that it would've made more sense to buy the movie at that point. In other words, I really liked this as a kid.

Thanks to Dan's raving, I finally watched it again earlier this year, after not having seen it for at least 10 years. The experience was...uh..

...let's just say that I still liked the movie, but it's really fucking stupid in ways, that I kinda didn't pay attention to when I was young.

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Slaps2

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#3  Edited By Slaps2

No one accept for 92% of critics according to Rotten Tomatoes. Your friend is an idiot.

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Phoenix654

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@glots: Oh, I'm not for an instant saying it's a great piece of cinema, because it's wayyyyy not. I will say it's exactly the right kind of dumb fun I like in action movies though.

@sinusoidal: Agreed. "Ridiculous and fun" would be a great quote on the box.

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Slaps2

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@glots: Oh, I'm not for an instant saying it's a great piece of cinema, because it's wayyyyy not. I will say it's exactly the right kind of dumb fun I like in action movies though.

@sinusoidal: Agreed. "Ridiculous and fun" would be a great quote on the box.

I'm sick of people not giving Face/Off it's just due. It is a great piece of cinema and real critics who know a thing or two about movies agree on that fact.

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Phoenix654

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@slaps2 said:

No one accept for 92% of critics according to Rotten Tomatoes. Your friend is an idiot.

Holy shit... I had never looked this up. I didn't think it was THAT well regarded... I'd have been happy if it was 60%. That's kind of nuts. And idiot is a strong term... I think they're just a film snob and not used to people disagreeing with them about movies. We all have our cocoons to protect us from discussion.

Also, "friend" is a strong term... I'd file them more in the "acquaintance" section.

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Phoenix654

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@slaps2 said:
@phoenix654 said:

@glots: Oh, I'm not for an instant saying it's a great piece of cinema, because it's wayyyyy not. I will say it's exactly the right kind of dumb fun I like in action movies though.

@sinusoidal: Agreed. "Ridiculous and fun" would be a great quote on the box.

I'm sick of people not giving Face/Off it's just due. It is a great piece of cinema and real critics who know a thing or two about movies agree on that fact.

See previous post about my mind blow of seeing a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes. I still think of it as John Woo-ass John Woo movie, but if professional critics say it's great cinema to that extent, fuck... I guess it is.

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Slaps2

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#8  Edited By Slaps2

@phoenix654 said:

I think they're just a film snob.

If they were a film snob, they wouldn't have such a stupid opinion. And take that from someone who has a personal movie review website that literally no one reads.

Edit: how the hell did that quote link to my profile?

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Rebel_Scum

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lol, nobody likes Face/Off...

...<goes back to eating a peach for hours>

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deactivated-5e6e407163fd7

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I watched it for the first time about 3 weeks ago. I had no idea it was basically a Robitussin inspired fever dream. I really wasn't that into it; there were some novel moments from how insane it was, but overall it was just too much and felt like Woo over indulging. Some people think that's great and fun, but I thought it became too gaudy.

It seems like a lot of critics like this movie for different reasons now--at least the performances. They've fallen into the camp of the performances are so bat-shit they are mesmerizing; where as the reviews I read from back in the day take it much more seriously and talk about the subtleties the set up forces the actors to use.

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pompouspizza

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I love Face/Off deeply. It's one of my favourite action movies ever.

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pompouspizza

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Slaps2

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Loading Video...

Please allow this clip to speak for itself.

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Phoenix654

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#15  Edited By Phoenix654

@sinusoidal said:

Face/Off isn't going to win any Oscars...

It got closer than either of us would think. Curiosity and an evening of deep dive rabbit hole searching reading the wikipedia page shows it was nominated for Best Effects and Sound Effects Editing. Lost because a little movie called Titanic came out the same year, but two more nominations than I would have guessed.

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SpaceInsomniac

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@slaps2 said:

No one accept for 92% of critics according to Rotten Tomatoes. Your friend is an idiot.

Holy shit... I had never looked this up. I didn't think it was THAT well regarded... I'd have been happy if it was 60%. That's kind of nuts. And idiot is a strong term... I think they're just a film snob and not used to people disagreeing with them about movies. We all have our cocoons to protect us from discussion.

Also, "friend" is a strong term... I'd file them more in the "acquaintance" section.

Your acquaintance is wrong.

Massive spoilers for the entire movie:

Loading Video...

Face/Off is awesome.

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alexl86

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While it's by no means my favorite, I enjoy the movie. It's a good, if flawed action film.

As for it's fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a lot of critics thought it was the best action film of the summer, but just as many gave it a passable 2.5/4 or 3/5 rating, which translates to fresh. If all critics gave a movie 2.5/4 stars, then the movie would be a 100% on the tomato meter, but it would hardly be representative of the general sentiment towards the film.

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Arjailer

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It's great in a totally silly cheesy way :-D

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Sinusoidal

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@glots said:

In my past experience, people who are fans of John Woo's Hong Kong movies (The Killer, Hard Boiled) seem to largely agree, that this movie is trash.

Which is ridiculous because those movies are just as ridiculous as Face/Off.

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frymillstrum

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I'm genuinely surprised this is a question that even has to be asked, Face/Off is one of the most entertaining movies ever made. I mean, Dan Ryckert watches it roughly once a month so it MUST but good right?

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corporalgregg

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I like both the movie and the show.

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ArtisanBreads

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#23  Edited By ArtisanBreads

I actually just watched Face/Off for the first time. GB made me finally check it out, even being a Woo fan and action movie fan I had somehow not seen it yet.

It has high highs but it's an uneven movie. It can be outright boring at points and drags in the second half. Also the action scenes are not remotely as good as Woo's others: little to no sense of place, repetitive "diving out of the way and then a hail of gunfire" moments. But I would say the first half of the movie is really entertaining. Cage freaking out as himself and then Travolta doing his routine for a bit is quite entertaining. Overall it's a pretty good movie.

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ArtisanBreads

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#24  Edited By ArtisanBreads

@sinusoidal said:

@glots said:

In my past experience, people who are fans of John Woo's Hong Kong movies (The Killer, Hard Boiled) seem to largely agree, that this movie is trash.

Which is ridiculous because those movies are just as ridiculous as Face/Off.

Please explain how Hard Boiled is remotely as ridiculous as Face/Off. It's a very standard cop movie with the best action scenes ever (which is what makes it special). There is basically nothing ridiculous about the plot except its an action movie and you see a million guys get shot.

I can't believe you have actually seen these three movies to make that comment. Face/Off is extremely ridiculous (which is fine but lets call a spade a spade).

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Fezrock

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#25  Edited By Fezrock

Its a very dumb, very fun movie.

On its merits, its not as good as peak early- Hong Kong era John Woo, but few action movies are.

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TheManWithNoPlan

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If someone is going to make broad statements like that even when you try to convince them otherwise, and they don't even show a possibility of changing their mind, I usually find it's not worth arguing about. People are stubborn.

Oh, and yeah, plenty of people including myself love Face/Off. Didn't even know their was a tv show.

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sammo21

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Face/Off is a legitimately good film. Goofy? Sure, all Hong Kong action and inspired films have a little bit of goofiness to them.

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Fear_the_Booboo

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Hey I'm the snobbiest of movie critics and I like Face/Off.

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notnert427

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Face/Off is dumb and great. It's obvious that Cage and Travolta really had fun with it, and John Woo's style fit it well. It's not a very "good" movie in the traditional sense, but it's entertaining as all hell and therefore is well-worth watching.

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Zelyre

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It's a 90's action movie - incredibly dumb and silly. But it feels really self-aware and capitalizes on it. It's a dumb popcorn movie with dumb popcorn movie lines.

It's... a work of art. It belongs in the Louvre.

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mellotronrules

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everyone likes face/off- they just haven't realised it yet.

*runs my hand down the face of everyone who doesn't like it*

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LawGamer

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I originally thought this thread was talking about the Sci-Fi reality show. That show is rad.

The movie is OK too, I guess.

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deactivated-5fe944c2b23b6

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Some people have a hard time being silly. Face-off is silly, silly is good.

Face....offffff

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OurSin_360

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Used to love it, haven't seen it in years but i'm sure it holds up...

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Omega

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Face/Off is incredibly stupid. The concept is stupid, the action is stupid and the acting is stupid. I really enjoy Face/Off.

What I like about Face/Off is that for as stupid as it is it never gets me to eye roll and yell "oh c'mon!" like in a Michael Bay, Paul WS Anderson, or Roland Emmerich movie.

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Welding

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#36  Edited By Welding

That is a FANTASTIC and fun film.

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Phoenix654

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Thanks for all the votes cast here everybody. I was feeling a bit down after this happened yesterday, and it's nice to know I'm not alone on this oil rig with magnetic boots on.

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DinosaurCanada

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If I were to run an art museum I would probably have a TV playing Face/Off constantly in a glass case.

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hans_maulwurf

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#39  Edited By hans_maulwurf

Have only seen it once, I don't remember liking it all that much to be honest. Also not a huge fan of the rock, though I'd say that's an ok movie. same with cobra. I think the only movie where the gb crews taste and mine overlap is demolition man.

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ltsmash

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It's very good, but I could have done with 50% less face waterfalls:

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BigBoss1911

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#41  Edited By BigBoss1911

It's actually a really good movie. Nic Cage is crazy as fuck.

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L33T_HAXOR

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#42  Edited By L33T_HAXOR

Anyone who dislikes Face/Off is probably a bad person. Just sayin'.

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shiro2809

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Face/Off the movie is so good, I can't trust people that don't like the movie. The show Faceoff is really cool too.

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zombievac

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@alexl86 said:

While it's by no means my favorite, I enjoy the movie. It's a good, if flawed action film.

As for it's fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a lot of critics thought it was the best action film of the summer, but just as many gave it a passable 2.5/4 or 3/5 rating, which translates to fresh. If all critics gave a movie 2.5/4 stars, then the movie would be a 100% on the tomato meter, but it would hardly be representative of the general sentiment towards the film.

Exactly. Rotten tomatoes ratings are a junk metric. Meaningless.... even less so than the old math systems for game review scores that Jeff always mentions!

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TobbRobb

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Face/Off is awesome. I've seen it multiple times and it's always been fun.

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forkboy

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I'm ambivalent towards Face/Off.

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Humanity

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I have not seen it as an adult but as a kid I thought it was pretty fun.

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GERALTITUDE

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Face/Off is one of the greatest action films of all time.

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Lv4Monk

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#49  Edited By Lv4Monk

@zombievac said:
@alexl86 said:

While it's by no means my favorite, I enjoy the movie. It's a good, if flawed action film.

As for it's fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a lot of critics thought it was the best action film of the summer, but just as many gave it a passable 2.5/4 or 3/5 rating, which translates to fresh. If all critics gave a movie 2.5/4 stars, then the movie would be a 100% on the tomato meter, but it would hardly be representative of the general sentiment towards the film.

Exactly. Rotten tomatoes ratings are a junk metric. Meaningless.... even less so than the old math systems for game review scores that Jeff always mentions!

I consider Metacritic worthless information while Rottentomatoes just needs an understanding of what it's numbers mean. "Percent of movie critics that gave it a thumbs up" while not super important is the only meta score that has any value at all. When you just need a quick glance at a movie's reception it beats totally different review systems being mashed together to form a completely arbitrary number measuring it's worth.

Rottentomatoes doesn't try to tell you how good a movie is (subjective and dependent on a reviews context), only how many critics thought it was good (mathematically provable and standardized).

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n00bs7ay3r

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Face/Off is a bad movie that I happen to enjoy for its badness.