Film – Quick Thoughts: Face/Off

Face/Off, directed by John Woo
Written by: Mike Werb & Michael Colleary
Starring: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage & Joan Allen
My rating: 4 of 5

I’ve watched this before, lots of times in fact as I really like it. It’s a shame John Woo never really seemed to find his place in Hollywood as Face/Off is a very fun action film, a great core idea – a cop taking the face of a criminal to infiltrate his organisation and find a bomb, then the criminal taking the cop’s face and destroying all evidence of the swap – and lots of style.

It’s not as unashamedly insane as Con Air, Woo pulling it back from pure silliness to keep it somewhat serious, but Nicolas Cage and John Travolta are still wonderfully over the top at times. It’s like Nicolas Cage and John Travolta were told to act to extremes because they need to be both hero and villain at different times, and each needs to be noticeably different. When Nicolas Cage is overacting he’s just marvellous, making the best faces, and Travolta’s no slouch either.