Review of Face/Off (1997) by Stefan G — 16 Nov 2014

This is a movie that does nothing other than confuse me. Following the plot was more like a chore because of the film's sub-par writing, which often acts as though the two main characters are the same person.

I understand the need to deal with a dual identity once you've had them literally swap faces. The acting isn't very good, but there some humorous moments that mostly come from John Travolta and Nichols Cage playing each other in the only role that Nicolas Cage doesn't completely fail at.

For me, the biggest problem with the story is that there are plenty of scenes that didn't need to be there at all, and by that I mean that there's more exposition and emoting than is really needed in this film.

Maybe that's why this movie is over two hours long, which for any other movie is fine, but for this one, it tends to try my patience, mainly because of the confused script and rampant overacting. If there's one thing this film does right, it's that at least it's a halfway decent action movie, but there aren't a lot of the qualities that would make it anything other than a typically mindless action film.