Face/Off and Con Air turn 20 this month

Let's take a second and rewind the clock back to the summer of 1997, and the second summer of just a glut of movies. I'm not kidding somewhere in a box there is a calendar for 96 and 97 and it has all the films released those weekend. I think each weekend had like two or three big movies released. The competition for those two summers was fierce. It was the height of summer and the action film.

Each year had some form of a cool action film. Something that was looking back on it loud and very cheesy and silly. Though some of them have gone on to cult status and actually are kind of elevated. The Rock and Armageddon for that matter have actually been taken and added to the Criterion Series. Which is a brand that takes the "best" of films for those years and comes out with the best sound and picture. It was a way to get a lot of money because those DVD's were the "film snob" type DVD. I have a few I admit. They do sound awesome.

There are two films though turning 20 this year that came out the summer of 97. The first one was Con/Air, and the other is Face/Off. Both are action riddled awesomeness. One though is more sophisticated and actually kind of smart. The other is a slam, bang, silly, cheesy, violent, Jerry Bruckheimer action film. This was before Disney started having him make Pirate films.

Con Air is a film about a man that was a soldier, he came home and accidentally killed a man in a bar fight. Though the guy was a douche, to say the least. Since he was trained as a soldier and there for trained to kill he couldn't be held up to the standards of society and had to be locked up for an x amount of years. That is actually a line from the film. While it's not word for word it is the gist of what the Judge says in the voice over. That should signal this is going to be over the top fun and silly.

We see his time in prison and then finally he gets his release and he's boarding flight Con/Air! Along with his bunk mate. They are I guess both being moved together. Once we are on the plane we meet a cop trying to get a convict to spill his guts even though you're not supposed to talk. You have David Chappell burning a guy. John Malkovich is a crazy, nut guy. He orchestrates the escape. The best... worst thing about this movie is Nic Cage's terrible accent. Seriously, it's bad.

Want to check out Nic Cage back when he was on top of the acting list check this out! Awesome movie.

Face/Off also had Nic Cage and this time too John Travolta. Whereas Con/Air was a silly movie this is a far-fetched idea like Con/Air but actually, they at least tried to ground it in something. The drama between Joan Allen and John Travolta/ Nic Cage helped the film.

So this movie is about a cop that kills this one lawman's kid by accident. John Travolta wants to then get revenge. Finally, he's able to capture Cage's character, the turn though is that Cage has set up a bomb somewhere in LA and if they don't stop it'll explode killing a lot of people. John can't stop it and so he then takes Cage's body literally. We'll not really they exchange faces. Then, of course, Nic wakes up and all hell breaks lose for him.

It's orchestrated by John Woo. Who in the Asian cinema is awesome. His Hong Kong action films are the top tear. While he never became that big over here he did give us this jewel of an action film. He would then go on to do Mission Impossible 2 and that whole mess has sent him back to Hong Kong. Face/Off is a very cool fun and thrilling little action thriller. Travolta definitely was having a lot of fun and is very cheesy in this movie. Though I'd say for this one it works more. He really enjoys the bad guy role.

A quick warning for those that haven't seen it and have kids. Unless they are like teens and I would say at least 15-16 range I do have to mention to be careful. These are violent and adult action films. They have sexual aspects and the violence is very over the top and can be bloody.