Movie Review: Face/Off

Face/Off
John Woo - Director
Nicolas Cage - Castor Troy
John Travolta - Sean Archer
Joan Allen - Eve Archer
Alessandro Nivola - Pollux Troy


Face/Off is an action film, make no mistake. Action films usually aren't My Kind of Thing, but I believe that a good movie is a good movie is a good movie regardless of genre. Face/Off, however, is not a good movie. There are some qualities (or lack thereof) that come with an action film, and I can accept these things to a point. This movie just went a little too far off the deep end for my tastes.

The story revolves around Good Guy Sean Archer (Travolta) and Bad Guy Castor Troy (Cage) who is so ridiculously evil that it actually borders on being comedic. The character kills with absolutely no regard for anything whatsoever. Seriously, the citizens of Vice City get better treatment from Tommy Vercetti. Anyways, the movie opens on the typical 'Bad Guy does something terrible' scene, followed by the Good Guy catching the Bad Guy scene. This is where things get weird. You see, Castor's got a bomb planted somewhere in the city (the bad guy always has a bomb, doesn't he?) and only Castor and his brother know where it is. The CIA's team of mad scientists informs Archer that they can actually remove his face and replace it with Castor's face (Castor is in a coma.) It's simple, he's to become Castor, go to prison and find out where The Bomb is from Castor's brother Pollux. Of course, this is Top Secret so only 2 other people in the movie can know about it. And, of course, Castor is being kept in a hospital room all by himself with no guards and no supervision. And, of course, he wakes up and sees what happens, then makes a phone call to the Other Bad Guys who promptly arrive at the hospital with the doctor and the two people who are In On It. One quick medical procedure later and Castor is wearing Archer's face, ho ho. And he brutally kills the only 2 people who know what is really going on. Uh-oh!

I have, thusfar, given away nothing that cannot be surmised from the trailer. Here is something that isn't mentioned in the trailer: this movie takes place in an alternate universe. In this reality, everything explodes, sparks are frequently flying everywhere, there is glass everywhere that exists only to shatter (preferably in slow motion,) unless of course it is super glass which will stand up to gunfire because the story needs it to. Archer and Castor are impossibly accurate with their guns, unless they are shooting at each other of course. Now, many movies have been made in this reality. And I was entertained in spite of myself. However, everytime I began trying to forgive the movie its sins, it would commit another. The ending is the biggest sin of all. It's as if the director is saying "I've been a real jerk for the last hour and a half and I'm sorry. Ok everybody, here's a lollipop! YAY!!!"

Cage and Travolta have both been better, though it looked like they had fun making this film. I mean, Cage gets to play Travolta trying to be Cage and vice versa. How could that not be fun? Nicolas Cage is sometimes very good, sometimes over the top though I think he was directed that way. John Travolta has always been hit-and-miss with me, and this was a miss. I've never liked Travolta in villainous roles and this is no exception. Overall, despite the potential intrigue of having the two characters swap faces, Face\Off is just an action movie. If you like action flicks, add another wombat to the score.

Face/Off: 1.5 wombats out of four.