It's a case of "third time lucky" as John Woo finally makes his Hollywood breakthrough.

Rating: 8/10 (7 November 1998)

After two false-starts in his Hollywood career, namely "Hard Target" and "Broken Arrow", John Woo has finally made the successful transition from Hong Kong to Tinseltown. Fans of the legendary director's many Oriental "urban thrillers" should lap up this stylishly realised thrill-ride involving swapped identites, jaw-dropping visuals and guns galore.
The plot sees F.B.I. agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) out to seek revenge on arch-criminal Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) after the senseless murder of his young son. After a bullet-riddled opening shoot-out Troy is left comatosed and his gun-toting brother Pollux (Alissandro Nivola) is locked up, but their reign of terror is far from over. Aware of the fact that Troy has left a bomb capable of taking out the entire city ticking somewhere in LA, Archer is unable to extract the location of said explosive device from either Pollux or Troy's entire gang. It seems that all hope is lost until Archer is convinced to undergo radical surgery to effectively "become" his rival; his face is removed from his skull and replaced with that of Troy. A little haircut here, a touch of lypo-suction there and abracadabra! Archer is now the spitting image of his foe and can be placed behind bars in order to extrapolate the exact location of the bomb from "brother" Pollux. However, things get a little out-of-hand when Troy awakens from his coma, steals Archer's face, destroys all evidence of the mission and escapes. On hearing this, Archer (Cage) manages to break-out of jail and resume his deadly game of cat-and-mouse with his nemisis Troy (Travolta).
Confused? Believe me, it's a lot easier to comprehend when you're viewing it. "Face/Off" is possibly the first action film since "Die Hard" to combine edge-of-the-seat thrills with a riveting plot. The script is bursting with energy, emotion, witty dialogue and dark humour. Shoot-outs aside, the finer points of the film involve the Archer-faced Troy romancing his vegence-seeking enemy's wife.
Travolta and Cage are adpet at playing both good and bad guys; Travolta's villain is super-cool, whilst Cage brings a nervously dark edge to the hero. Superb support is offered from Joan Allen (Man Hunter) as Archer's lonely wife, Dominique Swain (Lolita) as his estranged daughter, and Alissandro Nivola (I Want You) as Castor's paranoid young brother.
Holding the entire movie together is Woo's outstanding direction, including slow-motion shoot-outs, double pistol action and Mexican stand-offs. Fans of his earlier collaborations with Chow Yun Fat will not be disappointed. Wrap it all up with a rousing score from John Powell and you've got yourself the best mainstream Hollywood action flick in years.