Face/Off (1997) needs a TV series remake

The view that Hollywood has been cynically reliant on adaptations, remakes and retellings of prior intellectual properties (IP) in recent decade is not without merit, and to a certain extent I agree with this. But some time ago I finally decided to watch John Woo's Face/Off (1997), and I've come away from it feeling that this action flicks is ripe for a television series adaptation.

Don't get me wrong. I can't even say I enjoyed the movie. It's just...ok, despite the critical accolades and financial success it picked up over two decades ago, I suppose? Maybe I would have enjoyed it more had I watched it when it first came out. It's a balls-out, bonkers action movie, but I could never be sure whether the action sequences were played out straight or ironically.

Anyway, I'm not saying that Face/Off needs a TV remake because the movie is good. No, it's actually because there are several acts of the movie lends itself well to being retold as a thriller series.

As a brief recap, the plot revolves around arch nemeses FBI agent Sean Archer and sociopathic career criminal Castor Troy, who swap their faces using a high-tech transplant. Nicholas Cage plays Troy and Archer-as-Troy, while John Travolta stars as Archer and Troy-as-Archer.

A part of the first act has Archer-as-Troy disguising himself as a prison convict in order to trick Troy's brother and lackey Pollux into giving up information on an imminent bombing attack. Unfortunately I don't remember much about the plot points (I didn't enjoy the movie that much, mind you), but I recall that Archer had to utilise subterfuge in order to trick Pollux into revealing the locations of the bomb. Furthermore, I found the whole prison sequence to be a little short; he was in there for what felt like only days, when I feel realistically it should have taken him weeks or months.

The second act is also ripe for adaptation. While Archer manages to leave the prison, Troy-as-Archer also succeeds in infiltrating Archer's work and family lives, which means more deceitful shenanigans. Troy still has to work to allay Archer's wife Eve's aspersions, while winning over his superior in order to maintain his after-hours criminal activities. And at the same time, Archer is trying to return to his family and somehow convince Eve that he is the real thing, while having the appearance of her husband's mortal enemy.

I think there is also another plotline from the movie that is fit for adaptation as part of a thriller series, but for the life of me I can't recall it any longer, and I have no plan to rewatch it.

Extend the prison sequences into one season, the movie's second act into the next two, then add the plotline which I've forgotten, and boom, you've got a four-ten-episode-season Amazon Prime thriller series. If they were able to stretch The Hobbit into three movies and The Handmaid's Tale into five seasons (so far), why not Face/Off? God, I hate Elizabeth Moss's stupid face so, so much.

I'll take my proposer's fee in the form of Mars colony shares, Bezos!

Surviving the Blip, succumbing to Covid: MCU in 2021

Say what you want about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies, but I find them thoroughly enjoyable piece of entertainment. Sure, they are by no means peak art by most definitions and are oftentimes formulaic, but the best of them are breezy, pulpy, character-driven power fantasy that feature highly-likable protagonists and snappy dialogue, and at their worst, they are a half-decent CGI-fest that tie up well to the larger lore in the franchise, which the fans are already familiar with.

Not simply satisfied with their success on the silver screen, MCU head honcho Kevin Feige then decided to bring a few of their characters to television, obviously as part of the strategy to market the new Disney+ streaming service. While shows such as WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (FAWS) and Loki had originally been slated for 2020 premiere dates, the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic in the end delayed them by one year.

It's also worth noting that although there have been other shows that were nominally made under the MCU banner using Marvel comic book properties such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Netflix's Daredevil and Jessica Jones, in recent years they have increasingly been considered non-canon or not part of the official lore, although Feige himself has been reluctant to clarify the matter outright. But I digress.

With the MCU coming at a crossroads, story-wise, due to the conclusion of its Infinity saga arc in 2019, only to be followed by a year-long absence of any release due to the pandemic, understandably the hype was huge in 2021. Fans, me included, want to know the future direction of the franchise.

Unfortunately, all the MCU releases this year have been misses for me.

I'm not going into specific details on why I haven't enjoyed Wandavision, FAWS and Loki, but they all share the same problem; the shows are all essentially movies that have been stretched thin to turn them into television shows.

From my observation, each episode of these MCU shows, which may run between 30 and 40 minutes minus the recap, intro and end credits, has only 10 minutes of plot points that are 'crucial' to the story. The rest is fluff. So how do they pad the running times? By having the characters engage in lengthy conversations that don't really serve the plot.

MCU movies are good at utlilising slower-paced exchanges between the characters to either let the plot breathe between set-pieces, or as character development, but the dialogue in the shows are simply ponderous, unnecessary interludes to the more important scenes.

The longer running times have also made it harder for me to suspend my disbelief, and I believe that I am not alone in noticing this. The believability of the flicks mostly hinge on the fact that they are not dissimilar to good magic tricks; sleights of hand that are performed just slowly enough to wow the audience, but still quickly enough that the spectators don't start noticing the secret compartment in the magician's wand. With the shows paced rather slowly and their sleights sloppy, I've been noticing more plot holes and inconsistencies in the characterisations. For example, who is Falcon and Winter Soldier's superior? Is it the army? SHIELD? The United Nations? Why do they seem to abandon their mission towards the end of the series? And what the hell is that speech in the final episode?

Sad to say, the shows are all stinkers for me, and that they are merely a marketing tool to sell Disney+ subscriptions (the fact that each episode of the show is released weekly instead of Netflix's method of releasing all episodes at the same time seems to corroborate this).

Even with the disappointing shows, I had thought that at least I still had the Black Widow movie to look forward to, which as a film, presents an MCU story in a medium that suits it the best. Surely it would be enjoyable.

Wrong again. 

Although it is a film, I find that it makes the same mistakes that the three shows above make. Too little going on, uneven pacing, banal dialogue and protracted running time, on top of the odd story and characterisation choices. Towards the end of the thriller, I was not even able to enjoy the CGI action sequence.

Perhaps the whole Infinity saga arc of the MCU franchise is lightning in a bottle, and coming up with enjoyable, financially successful action-fantasy movies that are also marginally believable is much harder than we've been made to believe.

Or alternatively, maybe Covid-19 is too strong, even for the mighty heroes who once survived and then overturned the Blip, and my fondness for brisk, colourful popcorn entertainment has been tainted forever by living through a global pandemic in one of the worst-hit countries.

Or maybe, just maybe, my taste in film has grown as a mature man to the extent that I can no longer enjoy a genre whose source material was originally aimed at children.

My VERDICT: 

- Loki 6/10

- WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow 5/10

Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)

While Indian films are rather popular in my country, for me it had been awhile since I last watched one. The song and dance routine is just not my cup of tea, unfortunately.

But recently I managed to watch Gangs of Wasseypur, and goodness, what a breath of fresh air the movie (or rather, movies) is.

The crime/gangster flick follows three crime families in the neighbourhood of Wasseypur, in the Indian city of Dhanbad over decades, as they clash for dominance and control over the production of coal.

Even before watching it, you get the idea just how ballsy it is by looking at the duration. The whole thing runs for five hours and twenty minutes, and it is actually split into two parts; parts one and two. Indian cinemas reportedly had been reluctant to show movies with such a long running time, so director Anurag Kashyap had to compromise by splitting his film into two. When I watched it, I was feeling rather adventurous and did it in one sitting all through the night.

What makes the movie memorable is just how high-octane everything is, from the editing, the performances, as well as the music. Jaideep Ahlawat, Manoj Bajpai and Nawazuddin Siddiqui are Indian stars whom I unfortunately am not familiar with, but they each chew the scenery as successive patriarchs of the Khan family. The supporting cast too pull in their weight in their energetic turns, decorating the Wasseypur of the movie with eclectic side characters. (There are characters literally named Perpendicular, Definite and Tangent in this film.)

The combination of the script and the characters that carry the movie also reminds us of Quentin Tarantino's films, especially one particular exchange between Khan family goons, on the digestion of one of their would-be victims.

With songs and dance a major part of popular Indian movies, Kashyap's movie also incorporated them, but the way it is done ensures that they do not distract from the story, for the most part. The songs are all featured as being performed during events (weddings, political rallies) that are attended by the characters or as part of montages, and this method aids the suspension of disbelief of viewers like me. And to their credit, the soundtrack is equally energetic and eclectic, and I can't help but hum some of the tunes for weeks after watching the movie. Just listen to this particular song and try to deny how catchy it is!

My VERDICT: The performances, combined with the snappy dialogue and editing as well as the lively soundtrack, made the five hours fly for me. 8/10