Nice Suit

Rating: 6/10 (28 February 2006)

"Face/Off" is the tale of Shawn Archer (John Travolta) hunting down the killer of his son Michael six years after the fact. But when Travolta finally catches the killer (Nicolas Cage), he learns about a bomb that will destroy Los Angeles. The only way to find and defuse the bomb is to surgically steal the face of Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) and infiltrate his den of murderers.
The effects of this film are great, first of all. Whoever designed the removed faces made them so lifelike I was quite shocked. In the same part of the film where a laser is creating a new ear for a man, I was very impressed. The explosions were also nice, though nothing you won't see in every other action film. Some things required suspended disbelief, because I find it hard to believe that Cage's character could have stolen Travolta's face, body and voice without anyone stopping him and then afterwards without Travolta's wife and kids catching on. And the fact their body types are so dissimilar. But whatever.
John Travolta can't act as usual (although when he is supposed to be Cage in Travolta's body he does pretty well)... but Nicolas Cage picks up his slack. Cage in a porno mustache? Yes! Cage as a sexually deviant, dancing priest? Yes! Cage with a bomb that has a big glowing Jolly Roger on it? Yes! Cage being crazy delicious? Oh yes, yes, yes! Why is Dominique Swain wearing crimped hair? But besides that, good choice to play the teenage daughter (especially with "Lolita" coming out the same year). I'm sure more than a few people paused or rewatched her key scenes a few times.
Two cool scenes: shooting the mirrors, where each must confront themselves as the other to destroy the other as themselves. And the "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" montage... so beautifully out of place! While the ending is incredibly sick in my opinion (some would call it heartwarming), overall this delivers everything an action picture should. Maybe it needed less Travolta and more Dominique Swain, but the Cage made the bitter pill go down like a peach.
Everything you are going to want from a John Yoo film. Recommended.