Face/Off

Plot

Six years ago, criminal mastermind Castor Troy’s assassination attempt on FBI bigwig, (and his nemesis), Sean Archer left Archer’s young son dead.

Today, he has just placed a nuclear bomb in a secret location, and following a shootout with the top cop – is left comatose.

Now Archer must do the unthinkable to find out the location of the bomb… with help of top docs, to have his face taken off… and replaced with Troy’s – in order to get Troy’s younger brother to spill the location of the bomb.

But what happens when Troy wakes from his coma… and has Archer’s face put on his own??? Now living as each other, can Archer get those closest to him, to believe he is who he says he is?

Direction/Cinematography

Directed by action supremo John Woo, whose over the top style is on point here.

The action barely stops, and some of Woo’s trademarks are present (such as the use of doves… so many doves…).

Cinematography is by Oliver Wood

Cast/Characters

Starring two of the biggest “read the assignment” actors of their generation;

John Travolta plays good cop who will stop at nothing Sean Archer, who is then ‘transformed’ into Castor Troy “playing” Sean Archer…

Nicholas Cage plays ultra baddie Castor Troy, who then “transforms” into Sean Archer, the good cop who will stop at nothing to stop his arch nemesis.

Joan Allen plays Archer’s wife Eve… she is great as what is essentially the ‘female lead’ – but doesn’t get nearly enough screen time.

Other cast members include (but not limited to); Dominique Swain (as Eve and Sean’s daughter Jamie), Harv Presnell (as Sean’s boss), Gina Gershon (as Castors ex), Alessandro Nivola (as Castors brother Pollux).

Notable ‘that guy’ cast members also include; CCH Pounder, James Denton, Margaret Cho, Tommy Flanagan, Thomas Jane, and John Carroll Lynch.

Danny Masterson has a role… that lets just say has aged terribly for him considering what he did in real life.

Breakdown

This is the epitome of John Woo action, 1990’s action, and is also one of the ‘Nicolas Cage trilogy’ that made him the over the top star of the 90s. The other two being the already reviewed, The Rock and Con Air.

This must hold down the record for the most ridiculous ‘body swap’ movie trope on ‘how the body swap occurs’. Travolta’s Archer, must locate a bomb in his city – and the only way to get the info from the comatose villain, is to have their faces removed (and of course all the other factors, like voice, weight, height are not an issue because… science???)

Once this happens, and “Archer” as Castor goes to prison, he is immediately suspected by his brother of being “off” – to the point just coming out a coma isn’t even a viable reason? The Castor comes out of his coma (and luckily with all the signs around the hospital he’s at is able to get his buddies to help him out, and off the only three people who know about the surgery???) Suspension of belief was strong in this screenplay!

There is some fun in the screenplay once the pair have swapped faces, and Troy (now as Archer) makes fun of Travolta’s looks.

From here we get a few dozen (well it sure feels like it) shoot outs, where cop Archer (as Troy) has to… not shoot cops… in order to escape from prison, escape from Troy’s buddies house etc. The party at friend Dietrich’s house has the pop culture famous lines such as “I want to take his face… off” and “no more drugs for that man!”

A big up for me was the use of sound, such as reloading guns, the focus on footsteps during some key shootout sequences. This scored an Oscar nomination, and deservedly so. I also loved that score by John Powell!

Cage and Travolta are two of the most ‘read the assignment’ actors of their generation, and almost always give 110% to their performances, even if the script is on the nose. It also gave the world the meme that keeps on giving, where whenever one of them has a birthday, the photo of the other is shown (and you just have to shake your head at the comments of the people who don’t get the joke).

Overall

A little long winded at times, with getting from one plot point to another, but with some great action sequences (with some even having a musical number over the top such as Over the Rainbow in one gunfight),

This could not have worked with any other cast other than Cage and Travolta.

With just the right amount of heart, (adopting Troy’s son at the end) this still works.

3.5/5

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