Cracking entertainment, thrillingly played

Rating: Null/10 (11 January 2004)

I'm really not a fan of John Woo - Broken Arrow was alright, and MI2 was shallow.
However, I decided to give him another try with this one, and to my utter delight this is leagues ahead of the rest.
Face Off is an action thriller flick with a little hint of sci-fi, and a big arch-nemesis theme. Sean Archer (John Travolta, initially) is the good cop who's up against the bad assassin type feller Castor Troy (Nicholas Cage). However, after capturing him, he realises there's a bomb and only Troy and his brother know where it is. So in order to get the information, Archer *becomes* Troy via a face transplant. However, it all goes wrong, of course, and Troy comes back and steals Archer's identity and wrecks all the evidence proving the existence of the mission...
Convoluted plot on paper, but in the movie it all works really well, and is marvellously directed. Plenty of thrills, plenty of spills, and all players appear to be having a great time, particularly Travolta when he becomes Troy.
Great yarn, and Woo's best for my money.