only criticism anyone can level is superficial

Rating: 10/10 (19 March 2001)

That Face/Off achieves what it does with the plot it has only makes its achievement all the more impressive. The plot is certifiably ridiculous. Obviously the two leads do an amazing job of becoming each other- kudos to two actors who haven't done a movie this good since (as of March 2001). Joan Allen and Gina Gershon are superb. I got more emotionally involved in Face/Off to a degree I had never been before with any action movie- or any genre for that matter. John Woo has made his best movie, and while Hard Boiled and The Killer come close, the rest of his Asian corpus of work is no comparison.