After Seeing Ghost Rider at the cinema recently I was left with an aversion to Nicolas Cage. Rather than allow this to get the better of me (and miss potentially good films) I decided to immerse myself in Cage’s back catalogue in the hopes this would cure me.
Con Air: Extended Edition
I’ve written about Con Air in the Viewing Journal before and this extended cut doesn’t add much to this excellent OTT action fest. The new scenes are mostly little character moments and as such are pretty superfluous to requirements. Big dumb action doesn’t get much better than this.
Face/Off
Nicolas Cage and John Travolta compete in a scenery chewing contest in probably John Woo’s best film since going Hollywood. It you can get past the ridiculousness of the central idea (two people swapping faces) then there is much fun to be had here. It’s the good guy/bad guy thing that Woo used to do se well in Hong Kong, yet it lacks the emotional depth of The Killer or Hard Boiled (as does all his Western work). It does have plenty of action, with lots of his trademark slow motion diving through the air while firing two guns and plenty of big explosions. As for which of the scenery munchers wins, I’d have to call it a draw.
The Family Man
