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FACE/OFF

Starring John Travolta, Nicholas Cage, Joan Allen, Gina Gershon, Nick Cassavetes, Alessandro Nivola, Harve Presnell, Margaret Cho

Director John Woo

Opens June 27

Major, major squibbage,'' one of the film's effects technicians calls it. In layman's terms, that means you'll be seeing gallons of blood pulsing across the screen in Hong Kong action auteur Woo's third Stateside bullet-fest. The director, whose hyperkinetic and ultraviolent shoot-outs have long been fetishized by his cultists, finally proved himself in Hollywood with last year's Broken Arrow, also starring Travolta and grossing $70 million domestically. This time, however, Woo seems to be returning to the overwrought plots and gore that made him famous back home. Expect — among other gross-out moments — a body squished by a plane on a runway and an extended bout of crucifixion-posed agony for Cage's character, a terrorist who surgically swaps faces (and bodies) with the FBI agent (a brooding Travolta) whose son he shot. The plot has each of the stars impersonating the other through most of the film — but only sometimes do Travolta and Cage make an effort to sound like each other. Confused? You're not alone. ''I often don't know what John's going for when we shoot,'' says Cage. ''He's got so many cameras going. But when I see it cut together, I see the amount of thought that goes into it to make it feel like a dance.'' UPSIDE Woo's unique ability to turn violence into poetry. DOWNSIDE American audiences tend to keep their violence and poetry separate.


Posted May 16, 1997 | Published in issue #379 May 16, 1997 | Order Article Reprints