Review of Face/Off (1997) by Spar154 — 09 May 2021

A brilliant film that serves as a showcase for acting talents.

I loved this movie as it not only has brilliant action moments but it also gives John Travolta and Nicholas Cage a chance to display their fantastic acting talents.Travolta plays Sean Archer,a member of the FBI who has been trying to take down Castor Troy(Cage)in revenge for the unintentional murder of his son.After catching up with Castor,Sean does enough to put him into a coma.However,Castor left a few surprises and Sean is forced to take Castor's face in order to infiltrate a prison and to retrieve codes from Castor's brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola)in order to stop a bomb going off. When Castor wakea from his coma, he realises what has happened to his face and forces the medical team to graft Sean's face onto his.He then destroys the evidence.What follows is a lot of action set pieces as Cage battles to get his face,and his life back from Travolta.

Firstly,John Woo has done an amazing job directing this. The way that he can make something so ugly like a gunfight seem so beautiful (see shootout in Castor's pad). Also the camera angles are not too hectic and all over the place like in most action movies but always give you the best view and this makes the action scenes a joy to watch.

Secondly, both leads are amazing in this film and in my opinion this film mainly serves as a showcase for Travolta and cage's acting talents. They play both parts brilliantly. Travolta succeeds more in playing the bad guy relishing that more than the family man and Cage plays both family man and cold blooded killer amazingly. The supporting cast are all phenomenal too and do great jobs.

I give this movie a 10/10, it is a joy to watch and also has a lot of memorable quotes "I could eat a peach for hours.