Face/Off  (1997)

This is a top action/suspense movie that all Cage and Travolta fans will love.

Travolta is a police officer after slick criminal Cage. When captured Cage is in a coma and so cops are unable to find out the location of a hidden bomb he is known to have planted.

Secretly Cage's is face is removed and put on Travolta so that he can convince Cage's brother (in prison) to reveal the location of the bomb.

Things start going horribly wrong when the real cage awakes from his coma and takes Travolta's face.

Travolta is now in an impossible situation. He is stuck in prison with Cage's face and everyone that knows the truth is dead except for his enemy the real Cage who is taking over his life.

Can Travolta get out of prison to stop the bomb and save his family?

A classic - nough said

Finally with much waiting we the audience,get the john woo movie we wanted,and well worth the wait,with casting two of the best male leads at the time playing opposites it works on many levels,action and pyschological,with great over-acting by Nic cage,& john travolta & the very sexy Gina gershon among others,there are a few moments that don't work but the gunplay is all here great script,superb action scenes stunts galore,not since hardboiled has john woo been this good,and may well be a while before we see a film like this from him again.if your a fan of john woo you may feel cheated that much of this borrows from the killer and hard boiled,but thats ok for this film as it works very well. watch enjoy and shout im castor troy!

THIS IS ALL TIME FAVOURITE OF MINE. EXCELLENT MOVIE WITH A TWIST. RECOMMENDED. EASY TO WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN

An unusal idea for a film, but it works.Without telling you the plot,two very different people manage to switch identitys.Fantastic plot,fantastic story,fantastic film. A must see

The first 5 mintues actually looked quite promising with Nicholas Cage as a completely over-the-top gun toting madman, but then....oh dear oh dear...it all goes horribly wrong. Ridiculous story line, appalling script and cringe-inducing emotional scenes are certainly not made up for by any amount of explosions and gunfights. Now, I enjoy a good explosion, fight and chase as much as anyone but when you're yelling at the telly 'for gods sake just kill him and get it over with' something is seriously wrong. And what about the ending.....oh my god it is so stupid I can't believe they could keep a straight face (no pun intended) acting it. Overall, I'll give it one star purley on the basis of the first 5 minutes but other than that, I want those 2 hours of my life back, right now!!

This has got to be one of the worst films that I have ever had the displeasure of having to sit through. It is another of John Travoltas many poor films and as for Cage, well what can I say,Its a miracle this guy has made so much money from 'ACTING' Its is on a par with Independence day and The day after tomorow!!!!!!!! Awfull

One of those films where there wasn't much else in and I stuck it in the player thinking that I would be bored before long. I was very mistaken.
This film although a little silly on the story side just sucks you right in. I thought the acting from Cage and Travolta was wonderful and glad that it had a happy ending.

Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but it did nothing to help

Good acting from classy players but the initial concept ruined it for me. Swapping faces was too weak an idea to carry some good scenes

This isn't the sort of film I would normally go for as I'm not a fan of action movies. But the acting is so good and the story so gripping that you end up being totally engrossed. Both Cage and Travolta are superb. Definitely worth watching!

this film showed how two good actors can combine their talents and create a classic that is before it's time and John Travolta when you remember in films like pulp fiction right through to Carrie you realise how talented this man is Nicolas cage has improved with age and this film proves it.

I've always liked Travolta and here is one of his best excursions. Add Cage into the equation as the baddie, some excellent special effects and a decent plot and you get a film that relly gives you "edge of your seat" stuff. I really enjoyed this. 5 star rated.

John Woo for the masses. Excellent film with Travolta and Cage obviously relishing the opportunity to swap roles.

very good film brilliant actors

Great action from the king of action director John Woo. Travolta and Cage are superb in their roles of gangsta versus police officer in a story of revenge and rivalry. The acting is amazing with Travolta and Cage interchanging character roles. Go watch this film and find out why Nicolas Cage is great and why we need a John Travolta in movies!

Two good actors that work well together to provide a very suspensful movie. As a fan of both I was not disapointed. So the plot was cheesy but arnt a lot of films? Well worth watching.

not bad film,bit far fetched but well worth the hour and half viewing time.enjoy

not bad film,bit far fetched but well worth the hour and half viewing time.enjoy

John Travolta plays a great bad guy. I wish he played the bad guy more often (even though really he's the good guy in this film). The film is full of action and good old fashioned violence to keep you in suspense and even though the story is a bit silly and over the top, it is still very watchable.

1 of the best action story. i recommend this one

Well at least the title to this film sounds like the phrase I used watching this mindless piece of Guano! On the same lines, the director should take the W off his surname and replace it with a P.

my girlfriend bugged me for this film and she loved every minute of it

Having read the other reviews, you've probably figured out what all the fuss is about, and I did too - and wasn't expecting a 'great' movie; on 'ok' action movie would have done nicely for a night in with a pizza and a beer.

Well, even having set the expectations so low, this film managed to disappoint.

The problem is not the premise - it is supposed to be a fiction movie after all: so, armed with suspension of belief, I was happy to buy into the notion of two people being able to "switch face" and that followed.

What really was appalling were the interminable action scenes (from running on foot/ then on car/ back on foot/ now on speedboats/ you get the gist) and the fact that, when the "bads" were discharging hundreds of bullets with automatic guns they'd miserably miss - but our "heroes" would hit with one single shot, whilst falling, shielding an innocent bystander and, possibly, singing an anthem.... come on, there must be a limit to what even an American audience is prepared to take, is there?

10 minutes into the movie one could easily guess where it would end - it was so obvious that I was hoping (against hope) that there would be a final twist, something totally unexpected to rescue a third-rate action movie.

there wasn't - it will end exactly how you expect it will

no reedeming feature

sorry

I would recommend this to anybody. It was gripping and full of suspence. Great acting from both Cage and Travolta. Utterly Fab.

Basically, I thought it was a waste of my life watching this film. There were so many face transplants it was hard to keep up on who was who. I would only reccomend it to fans of Travolta or Cage.

Brilliant performances and mind-numbing visual effects make Face/Off the explosive, stylish action thriller you've got to see to believe!

Gripping even though highly improbably story - a film to watch once (only!)

Despite a few decent action sequences Face / Off ultimately fails due to its sheer cheesiness. The face-swapping/ voice changing plot where the 2 lead actors become each other is pretty ridiculous to start with, and the film piles on every action film cliche in it's second half, with some diabolical dialogue and scenes that wouldnt look out of place in one of the Simpsons McBain parodies. Nicholas Cage is always prone to overacting, but here his badguy is literally chewing the scenery, and John Travolta feels obligated to try and keep up. If you watch this blind drunk with some mates, and think of it as an action movie satire it should be hilarious and great fun - but as an even partway serious thriller it's laughable, and all the slow motion gun battles in the world cant give it an ounce of credibility.

John Woo has made some brilliant films before Hollywood got his hands on him. This film is really awful. Why John Travolta or Nicolas Cage got involved in this is beyond me. This film has too big a budget and too small a script.

My advice is to check out Mr. Woo's pre-'93 films made in Hong Kong...

2 stars only - for John Woo's excellent action squences!!

HARD 2 BELIEVE THEN THIS WAS ONLY A MOVIE..NOW THIS CAN BE DONE FOR REAL NOT ON THE PERFECTION SIDE IT HAS BEEN DONE ALREADY THIS YEAR 2006

some good performances and action from start to finish. perhaps a little far fetched when it was released but maybe not so now.

A little modern movie history. In 1988 John McTiernan stuck Bruce Willis in a skyscraper, penned a few witty one-liners, distilled his plot to 100 per cent proof high concept and bought a lot of big fireworks. The result, Die Hard, signalled the birth of one of the most successful sub-genres of all time - the modern actioner (essentially anything to which the dismally overworked coda 'high octane' can be attached). For the last ten years everything in that genre has been living on its legacy - and things had started to look jaded. Until now. Because with Face/Off, ex-Hong Kong director John Woo has given the whole shooting match a much needed kick in the squibs. John Travolta is Sean Archer, head of a covert FBI counter terrorism agency on the trail of psychotic terrormeister Castor Troy (Cage), who has planted a bomb set to detonate after he has made his getaway and reduce the population of Los Angeles to one less than, er, one. Unfortunately, in the opening firefight Archer nixes said nutcase and, with no idea where the ticking device is, takes the 'obvious' option. He has Troy's face sliced off and glued to his noggin while his own visage resides in a jar. Needless to say such an opportunity for a concept so high you need oxygen to climb it cannot fail to be carried through and sure enough Cage, not dead after all, wakes up and appropriates Travolta's visage. The world, including Travolta's apple pie family and bosses, thinks one is the other, Travolta is slung into a futuristic version of Wormwood Scrubs while Cage porks his wife (Allen), ogles his daughter, and plans to take over the world, or at least Southern California. It is, of course, beyond ludicrous. But Woo's strength is to positively revel in the unlikeliness of his conceit. In one of the plethora of memorable scenes Travolta (as Cage) breaks down in front of his confused wife and howls with hysterical laughter at the predicament he's in. Equally Cage (as Travolta) is not beyond dipping his toes in the self-referential water - 'This ridiculous chin...' he moans. But if the knowing sharpness of the script is one strength, the action sequences - which simply set a new benchmark - are another. Shoot-outs are choreographed with the precision of a 40s musical number (quite literally in one astounding firefight, played out to the strains of Somewhere Over The Rainbow), car chases assume a new intensity when jets and helicopters drift casually into shot and the final boat sequence features a shot of the two leads being hurled through the air that will leave audiences gasping. Added to which are the performances from Travolta and Cage who try deliriously to out-do each other's lunatic badness when they get the Castor Troy role (Cage just pipping Travolta with the scene where, dressed as a priest after planting his bomb, he dances through the LA Conference Centre to the strains of the Hallelujah Chorus, lewdly harassing a girl in the choir singing it). Woo's triumph, then, is to finally have realised the American sized budget Hong Kong actioner. While Broken Arrow and Hard Target had moments of the director's inimitable style - essentially a willingness to use any and every filmic trick, especially his beloved slo mo - Face/Off has Woo written through it like a stick of rock. Sure there are niggles, the most obvious being the length, which could have been reduced by trimming the prison sequences, but in the end this may be his finest moment so far which, by default, puts it in as having a strong claim on the title 'best action movie ever made'. Really.

FACE/OFF, A revolutionary medical technique allows an undercover agent to take the physical appearance of a major criminal and infiltrate his organization. Nic Cage (The Wicker Man) and John Travolta ( Swordfish) were outstanding in this action crime thriller, It was quite a violent film however I did hear some very very funny one liners. Watch out for “ No daughter of mine - would shoot so wide” This is definitely a high fiver!

Relatively fast paced and very enjoyable film. Both Cage and Travoltas acting second to none. Obviously the story was a bit far fetched, but that was to be expected. However thought the ending was a bit rushed, and they could have came up with something more original than the schmaltzy happy ever after ending that so many American films insist on using.

THIS FILM WAS VERY GOOD A EXCELLENT PLOT LINE VERY ENJOYABLE HIGH OCTANE ACTION A VERY GOOD WATCH

You can't help but feel a little for sorry for John Woo. His entrance into hollywood filmmaking was merely a damp squib with the likes of Hard Target and Broken Arrow, in which his passion and vision were squashed by pushy producers. However, the roles were completely reversed with Face Off, in which Woo made an uncompromosing piece of cinema that reeks strongly of his earlier prime in native Hong Kong. Combining both directorial trademarks of excessive action and strong, humane characters (Played masterfully by seasoned veterans Cage and Travolta), Face Off at the time was a forward thinking action movie and marked the absolute peak of Hollywood produced action films.

a must watch film not to be missed

this fil is brilliant from the moment it starts. john travolter is good in it,a must to watch. lots of shooting,killing,suitable for all adults.

A classic story of good versus evil. An excellent and interesting story line that makes you think 'Can they really do that'. It's very convincing. John Travolta and Nicholas cage show fantastic acting ability with the ease with which they change character. Despite the actors switching characters, you instinctively know who's the bad guy and who's the good guy. I'm particularly impressed with both actors representations of 'the bad guy'. This film is on my list of all time classics.

A truely painful experience to sit through. Nicholas Cage yet again proving that he has been truely blessed in life by being one of the biggest actors in the movies because the mans acting talent left him sometime around the early 90's. His 'take' on John Travolta being at times almost too hard for me to watch without feeling violent towards life itself for keeping me in a 9-5 job. The whole films stupidness is summed by one scene where good ol' nic (now playing JT's character post 'face off') has to go into a prison to convince nasty nic's brother to tell him where the bomb he planted is. Now, here's the thing... no one in the known universe knows about this ultra special face swap technology but it somehow transpires that Nic's bro suspects that Nic isn't his bother after all and must be someone merely trying to emulate him. Awful all around.. John Woo... this, Broken Arrow, Windtalkers, that crappy Van-Damme thing... please please please... STOP

Another favourite film of mine, yes a bit OUT THERE but fun to watch, action packed movie. I love it

Oscar winning actor Nicolas Cage and screen icon John Travolta battle head to head in Face Off...the ultimate cat and mouse thriller directed by the worlds most aclaimed actionfilm director, John Woo! To avenge the senseless murder of his son,FBI agent Sean Archer(Travolta)undergoes Radicalnewe surgery allowing him to switch faces with the comatose terrorist Castor Troy(cage)and assume his identity. When Castor awakes and assumes Sean's identity,thye real Sean is thrust into an unimaginable nightmare,fighting not only for his life but those of his wife and daughter. Brilliant performances and mind-numbing visual effects make Face Off the explosive action thriller you've got to see to believe!

Although im not a big fan of Nicholas Cage, i was pleasantly surprised as to how much i enjoyed it. Both John Travolta and Cage worked well together

This is a good action film, John Travolta makes an excellent villian and is very entertaining in that role. The script has some 'WTF did he say? WTF did he actually intend to say?' moments, but that doesn't detract from the film very much.

'Isn't this religious, ah yes. The eternal battle between good and evil, saint and sinners...' OK, the plot may be a little (lot) far fetched but once you accept the premise, this is a truly amazing film. The film opens with prolific terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) accidentally killing FBI agent Sean Archer's (John Travolta) son, Michael. Skip ahead a few years and Archer finally has Troy cornered after chasing him all over the country. Troy is left comatose and when it emerges that his brother Pollux designed a bomb due to go off in a few days time, Archer has to assume Castor's identity in order to obtain the location of the bomb. Castor then wakes up and in turn, takes advantage of the situation by 'becoming' Sean Archer. The two men attempt to adapt to their new identities while simultaneously trying to kill each other. Both Travolta and Cage are terrific as ever, as are the rest of the cast (Alessandro Nivola in particular) and Woo's 'sparks-galore' direction is spectacular. There is a gunfight that could have been High Noon, a boat chase worthy of any Bond movie, dialogue that would make Tarantino proud and more twists than a plate full of spaghetti. The music is great too. It's pacey, it's clever, it's original, it's fantastic. You need to see this movie. 'Oh God, this is excellent. Oh, bravo. Bra-f***ing-vo!' - TZ

best film ive seen in ages, nothing as top it since. great story line would recommend to anyone. deffinatly five stars

Action movie with touch of emotion. Cage is Awesome as a nutter. Travolta is as usual great in his part as the hurt father wanting revenge.

What a grate film a lot of blud a lot of action and I loved the horror they tried to make it wasn't much of a horror but it still is a very good film my mother realy likes it and my father likes it so much as well.

There is nothing I can say about this film except 'RENT IT' - The plot line is (was?) very original. The acting of Travolta/Cage exceptional - Never a dull moment!

turned off before ending

Great film and trailer! Cage at his best along side Travolta.

Disappointing special features :-(

But well worth renting to see the film.....

Uproariously entertaining fare, this deliriously conceived action extravaganza is so, so enjoyable that it seems like it might just explode off the screen. Wonderfully hammy double performances are elicited from the stars by Woo, whose mastery of staging action-sequences is brought to eye-popping, ear-drum shattering life by the big budget.

It’s true, it does go on at least half an hour to long, and there is some truly risible dialogue towards the end…but it’s so much fun, who cares?

Undoubtly the greatest film i have ever seen. Cage is amazing as usual.

One of the best films ever!

A fantastic film, excellent acting and an excellent plot. Its amazing how they act in here once they change there faces! Well done.

Great acting, great cast, what more can I say. Action packed, definately worth watching.

far fetched - but a good watch!

This is undoubtedly the best film I have ever seen! Travolta and Cage excel in their roles as good vs. evil, and it is totally enjoyable.

My advice? Watch it!

An average thriller, with one gimmicky idea trying to extend itself far too long.

John Travolta, the moody cop, tries to catch Nicolas Cage, the evil-mastermind, but it all goes wrong and Travolta is left to watch as Cage goes within an inch of taking over the universe, or something equally unoriginal.

The effects are not as good as others, the story is something you've heard a thousand times before, and it's just too long for what it is.

This film was on probation from the moment when Nic Cage, dressed as a priest and making a getaway from committing some terrorist outrage, wanders into a choir singing the hallelujah chorus. We were then treated to a chase/gunfight sequence in which nothing anyone did made any sense at all, and for which the laws of physics had apparently been suspended for the duration.

OK I accept that a film like this requires a degree of suspension of disbelief (given the face-swapping premise). But do we have to accept a world in which both cops and robbers act is if it's far more important to give a balletic display of gunfire than to a: catch criminals b:steal cash or c: preserve their own lives? Much as I'd like to personally remove Nic Cage's endlessly mugging phizog, this was back in its case long before his face was in the petrie dish.

Travolta and Cage seem to relish the roles and the reversals that take place in the film. Cage is excellent trying to fit into the criminal world that he hates and the persona of the man who killed his son.

The action is superb as you would expect with this calibre of crew so strap yourself in and hold on.