A must for any and all action fans

Rating: Null/10 (13 April 2000)

Face/Off is a stunning achievement by acclamied Hong Hong director John Woo. Unlike many of Woo's past efforts, this movie has an awesome storyline to go along with a number of amazing action sequences and a very talented cast, which includes John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, and Gina Gershon.
In Face/Off, John Travolta and Nicolas Cage are both great actors. In the movie, they do what few actors before them have done: they get to play each other. They do it so convincingly that the only way to tell which one is which is to watch Dominique Swain and Joan Allen react to a given situation. (Swain and Allen play the daughter and wife of John Travolta's character, respectively).
From the first shot fired at the beginning of the movie to the final fight between Travolta and Cage, Face/Off is nothing short of spectacular. Woo uses violence as an art form to tell a very emotional and very powerful story. The violence in the movie is absolutely necessary in telling the story, just as it is in "The Matrix". Without Woo's over-the-top action sequences, Face/Off would be just another sci-fi drama, and the futuristic world the screenplay originally intended for the movie would be absolutely necessary.
Rating: 4 stars out of 4