Trading 'Faces'.

Rating: 10/10 (15 May 2008)

My Take: The mindless action movie for smart people.
FACE/OFF is Hong Kong action director John Woo's 3rd Hollywood action effort, and it is in this one that he finally hits the stride. Woo deliver one heck of a punch and delivers one action scene after another...with style. FACE/OFF is action filmdom as an art form. There are many moments of violence and shootouts, but thanks to th very talented Woo, the action is in a style of his own. Slow-motion shots and all, FACE/OFF is not just a non-stop thrill machine that one quit for a second (from the opening credits to the seat-gripping climax, it hardly has time for small talk), it's also Woo's perfect ballet of style and violence. And if you think those to things don't go together, then you haven't seen FACE/OFF.
Perhaps one of the two best actors at work in action films is John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, and they prove the pride of their work in this movie. During the film's gloomy prologue, nice-guy family man cop Sean Archer (Travolta) is on a carousel with his little boy, while on top of the hill is eccentric terrorist Castor Troy (Cage), aiming his sniper at Archer but misses, and hits his son instead. Since then, Archer has devoted himself on bringing Castor down. After two years or so, he's still at it. "We'll take a break, when the case breaks!" Archer says angrily. When Archer does corner Castor in hi private plane (in one of the film's earliest action scenes), Archer brings Castor drop dead in a coma. Just when he thought it was over, secretly Castor and his brother Pullox (Alessandro Nivola) has already set up a bomb and Castor's brother, captured for interrogation, just won't talk. What does he do? Well, here it goes. Archer has to switch faces with the comatose Castor, go to prison with Pullox and make him talk. Oh! And he also must remain undercover. No one knows, even his wife Eve (Joan Allen), of the operation. Things get worse when Castor wakes up (!) from his comatose and asks for Archer's face. Silly plot as it is, but who cares. This give us a chance to see the good guy Travolta and bad guy Cage switch personalities for most of the film.
What else is good about FACE/OFF is how the characters are well-developed. Archer is a nice cop, but isn't the same as a husband and a father, as he is unable to handle his relationship with his wife and rebellious daughter Jamie (Dominique Swann). Castor Troy is what he is, a real villain everyone loves to hate. The supporting characters are surprisingly well-developed and interesting. We care about these batch of characters, more or less it's the action we want, and it's more than we get. The action scenes here, including the opening action fireworks and the boat chase climax is a seat-gripper. Then there's a number of shoot-outs and fist-fights that, under the style of Woo, is like a ballad... with guns and punches. FACE/OFF is action movies of the best order. It's one of the best action movies in years.
Rating: ***** out of 5.