Rated R for intense sequences of strong violence, and for strong language.
I hate to see you go, but I LOVE to watch you leave. -Castor Troy
A revolutionary medical technique allows an undercover agent to take the physical appearance of a major criminal and infiltrate his organization.
Review
Okay, so I’m resolved to the fact that I’m the only person who didn’t like Face/Off. I love John Travolta, Nic Cage, and John Woo movies, but somehow pretty much nothing about this action oriented science fiction twisted movie did anything for me. At least not in a positive way.
John Travolta and Nicolas Cage are phenomenal actors, but both were so freaking awkward in this movie. Each have a tremendous versatility to play both hero and villain, but I was never sold on any attempt from either of them. The idea is far-fetched of course, and I’m sure John Woo figured he could rely solely on the talents of Cage and Travolta, but when that faltered there was nothing but fast chase and fight scenes, high octane moments, with no substance behind it. I can deal with pretty much no substance in a movie, but when it’s trying to sell more, it becomes a distracting quality.
The off balance creation made this film a below par attempt at something that really had the potential to be great. I can’t put my finger on what exactly didn’t jive in Face/Off. Each thing that bothered would have been okay if some other element was altered. I guess I just felt like it never came together in any form of continuity. The focus on individual performances was it’s greatest weakness, but that can’t be blamed entirely on Travolta and Cage. Woo had a responsibility to compensate for the actions that didn’t work, and he failed in that perspective.
As I’ve mentioned, most people found this to be a hard-core fun action movie, and did receive mostly positive feedback from critics. For whatever personal reason, it’s just a bandwagon I can’t get on. I seemed to have missed what most other people liked, and seen only negative. After two viewings, my conclusion is the same, and I stand behind my convictions. Face/Off was an all over the place mess in my book.
what a waste of a great concept
I did like this one as well but I have a fond place in my heart for mindless action flicks from my youth. But I’ve got to say that I personally feel that Travolta and Cage never really bring much to the roles they play. I’ve never really liked Travolta and I’m on the fence with Cage. I probably find him really enjoyable in about half his movies.
I agree with you to an extent about Travolta and Cage.
A lot of movies Travolta has just been BAAAAAAAD in the recent years, whereas I think Cage sometimes picks bad roles, but is in general a solid actor. It’s seldom I think he does something outside of his range.
I love mindless action too, but I couldn’t love this one.