Review of Face/Off (1997) by The R — 30 Jun 2011

In John Woo's "Face/Off", John Travolta plays an FBI Special Agent who assumes the identity of a captured terrorist, played by Nicolas Cage,by swapping their faces, to foil his plans, only to have the terrorist assume his identity and try to take him down.

From this clever premise comes the film's greatest (admittedly guilty) pleasure: seeing Travolta and Cage devour the scenery doing their best impressions of each other. The film gets terrific mileage out of this premise, and it lends the story a good sense of humour as well as additional dramatic tension.

The film is an interesting mixture of camp, melodrama and high-powered action, which just barely fit together. Of course, this is a John Woo film, so we must talk about the action sequences. Woo has a talent for placing his action in unusual settings and contexts to support the drama, especially in this film where the swapped identities make for additional complications.

While the action in this film doesn't have the same artistry as say "Hard Boiled", they are expertly choreographed in Woo's gun fu style, with an additional layer of big budget Hollywood slickness that seems suitable for the material.

For Cage's impression of Travolta and Travolta's impression of Cage, and for the exciting action sequences, "Face/Off" is worth checking out.