I cut meat and I sing my song

[sovay]

O mysterious benefactor off the internet who sent me a copy of Kevin Macdonald's Emeric Pressburger: The Life and Death of a Screenwriter (1994), thank you! It arrived this afternoon and I am so far enjoying it immensely. There are several film-related books I have been reading recently and want to talk about, although not tonight because I saw half of John Woo's Face/Off (1997) earlier this evening and my head is still filled with Nicholas Cage and slo-mo and cascading sparks and exploding airplanes and people falling sideways while firing two guns at once and John Travolta being significantly more entertaining than most roles I've seen him in, possibly on account of playing Nicholas Cage. I may even want to see the rest of the movie sometime after my ears have stopped ringing. I am reliably informed there are doves.

Comments

[handful_ofdust]

Always doves! I've never seen a Woo movie where they're absent.

[sovay]

Always doves! I've never seen a Woo movie where they're absent.

That was one of the most interesting movie experiences I have encountered recently, even incomplete, because I could not tell what parts of Face/Off the audience was supposed to take seriously and what parts were deliberately over-the-top and maybe the answer was "none" or "all" and on the way home I finally realized that if it had been animated I wouldn't have turned a hair at any of it, because it was exactly the sort of slightly futuristic hyper-stylization that I accept from anime all the time, only live-action and with practical effects including a plane chase. Can I assume the movie had a ridiculous fandom in its day?

[rosefox]

IDK from fandom but I have an inexplicable love for that film, and I think a lot of people who saw it when it first came out probably do. It's just so utterly nonsensical and full of amazing lines (which I still quote from memory 20 years later) and the perfect vehicle for both Cage and Travolta.

1997 was Peak Cage, as I recall; yeah, looking it up, Con Air was also 1997 and The Rock was 1996. All three films make it clear that Cage has no interest in taking himself seriously, but that he takes his work extremely seriously, which is actually a great combination in an action star.

...now I want to do a triple-header of those three films. And maybe Grosse Point Blank, since 1997 was also Peak John Cusack. (He's in Con Air too, which everyone forgets because there's so much good scenery-chewing going on.)

[moon_custafer]

"No more drugs for this man" became a catchphrase for a while among my acquaintances.

(Not sure if that line was in one of the scenes you saw)

[sovay]

(Not sure if that line was in one of the scenes you saw)

I waited just long enough to hear the "face . . . off" line and then bailed on account of really needing to go home and work, so, yes.

[rosefox]

That one, and "I knew it was only a matter of time until you forgot where we lived", and "They're like cockroaches!", and I really need to watch that movie again.

[yhlee]

Face/Off may be the only movie you've blogged about that I have seen. :p It was over the top and sentimental and dramatic and hilarious and...*flaps hands* I only saw it once but rather adored it.

[sovay]

I only saw it once but rather adored it.

I definitely want to see the rest of it! It was just an intense and intensely confusing experience.

[yhlee]

I can imagine!

It isn't exactly that, but bodyswap is one of my favorite fannish tropes so you can see where I'd fall for this regardless of whether it's objectively any good. ^_^

[sovay]

but bodyswap is one of my favorite fannish tropes so you can see where I'd fall for this regardless of whether it's objectively any good.

It is for all intents and purposes bodyswap with the thinnest of scientific rationales. It counts!

[moon_custafer]

I once saw the last twenty or so minutes of another Nic Cage confection, Drive Angry, in which he plays a deceased bank robber who literally busts out of Hell to rescue his infant granddaughter when a cult leader/sorcerer kidnaps her. There's a demon trying to hunt him down and recapture him, who (being an honourable foe -- demons in this movie are basically God's police force) ultimately teams up with him to destroy the cult leader/sorcerer. It's delightful.

[sovay]

There's a demon trying to hunt him down and recapture him, who (being an honourable foe -- demons in this movie are basically God's police force) ultimately teams up with him to destroy the cult leader/sorcerer.

That is a pretty great premise.

It's delightful.

I really enjoyed Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009). I may just have an easier time parsing Werner Herzog than John Woo, on account of having seen more of him.

[rosefox]

Whaaaaat