Facing off with faces off in Face/Off

Rating: 5/10 (11 July 2018)

Nicolas Cage and John Travolta face off, in, err, in Face Off, where they literally have a face off. Confused? Meh - don't be, it's a no brainer action film more than a thought provoking epic. Travolta is a cop, Cage is criminal. Cage gets captured and ends up in a coma, but the cops need to know what Cage knew, so they get Travolta to very literally swap faces with Cage - because it's that easy, quick and clean :D . Travolta, as Cage, then goes undercover as Cage to stop a terrorist plot - but unbeknown to Travolta, Cage comes out of his coma and escapes. He put on Travolta's face - living as Travolta with his wife and child. Cage destroys all the evidence previously linking him and his gang to the crimes, and while he's at it he destroys the facility (and staff) who can reverse the face swap procedure. Cage and Travolta meet, setting up a twist in the plot, confirming that Travolta (as Cage) needs to become more criminal if he's going to escape the prison he's in, while Cage (as Travolta) needs to be a little nicer if he's going to get away with things scot free. Of course, the middle ground shows what both of them would be like, if in their own lives, they took a characteristic of each other.
This film comes straight from the 90's, where a fart of an idea would end up being the plot for an action movie. A lot of the acting is over the top, but intentionally done so in order to allow Travolta and Cage to mimic one and other, plus it gives the audience an easy in to see who is who, despite the faces appearing on-screen. There is plenty of action - there are plenty of gun shots (most of which seem to miss - in a small room Cage and Travolta can unload automatic guns and still miss each other, but when aiming for henchmen they seem to have pin point accuracy), but don't be surprised to see stunt cables, visible squibs or planted explosives on display - a bit lazy. This film was never going to win any major awards, but it won't drive you to smashing up the TV if you happen to catch it repeated one night. It's not the worst film but I've got to be realistic when rating it and compare it to other films of the era and genre, I can only give this a 5 out of 10 at most. A typical John Woo film, lots of action, little plot, stylised imagery, hardly any depth, a little bit corny, featuring totally unrealistic occurrences for the hell of it. The film probably helped John Woo's cult status, but it didn't do anything to move cinema forward.