Nice Action Flick...

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2002)

In the 1997 action hit "Face/Off," John Travolta plays Sean Archer: a cop hot on the trail of criminal Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage), who has just planted a bomb somewhere. Basically, after catching Troy at an aircraft hanger, Archer decides to have surgery and take on Castor's face so he can meet up with Troy's brother and ask him where they hid the bomb.

The plot premise may be ridiculous, but the rest of the film makes up for it. I'm not a big fan of John Travolta, but he was good in this. I like Nicolas Cage in action films and he didn't let me down in "Face/Off".
John Woo beautifully directs this action flick, using surroundings to bring out the characters feelings and emotions. When they're angry, the background becomes dark. When a character is happy, it's bright(er).
If you like John Woo's work, see this film. If you don't like John Woo's work, see this film. It's a surprisingly gritty and tough action flick with emotion. Sometimes the film gets dragged out at certain scenes. Sometimes scenes the editors should have cut ended up in the film. Either way, "Face/Off" is overall a surprisingly good action film.
4/5 stars --
John Ulmer