Cop changes identity with a bad guy to find out where he hid a weapon of mass destruction somewhere in L.A. John Travolta and Nicolas Cage give fine, if not brilliant performances. John Woo is at his best since **The Killer** opened in Hong Kong.

[[faceoff]]John woo is one
of those directors that you either love or hate. There’s not much in
between. I fall into the former camp and believe is artistic mayhem to be
some of the most visually pleasing directing being done today.

==This action movie has it all==

How often do you see an action movie that has moments of drama so gripping
that they bring tears to your eyes? Not very. But this one does. There’s
also comedy, beautiful direction, great action. In short, this is great art
in the form of a summer movie.

==It’s like looking in a mirror… only not==

==Ballet of Blood==

[[faceoff-mirror]]
John Woo movies tend to be extremely violent. That’s no crime for an action
movie director. But his violence has a certain style that’s almost undescribable. He has said in interviews that his biggest influences in
film were Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He loved the way the dance
numbers in their movies were put together. In his own movies the gun play
is choreographed as one of Fred and Ginger’s dance numbers. Little
attention is payed to the realism of what’s going on, but rather on how
things happen visually to create the biggest impact. For instance, there’s
a scene after Travolta and Cage have changed identities where they’re
having a gunfight in a hall of mirrors. Why a hall of mirrors? No reason
as far as the story is concerned, but it gives John Woo a chance to make a
statement about the characters: they have to shoot themselves to get their
nemesis.