"Face/Off" has a ridiculous premise, and has many action scenes that require suspending all disbelief. While bogus throughout, the film can still be entertaining, especially when watching Nicolas Cage and John Travolta playing gun-waving bad guys. Travolta looks like he's having a blast throughout, perhaps because his character gets to have all the fun.
The plot has world terrorist and psychopath Castor
Troy (Cage) essentially changing bodies with humorless
but driven federal agent Sean Archer (Travolta).
Archer has a vendetta against Troy for killing his
young son. When Troy is finally captured, Archer
must assume his identity to learn the location of
a bomb about to blow up Los Angeles. But soon Troy
has assumed Archer's identity as well, which includes
sleeping with his wife and using his department to
exterminate his enemies.
Travolta and Cage are fine, and there's plenty of
action and pathos to keep things interesting. The
problem is that the premise and action scenes
don't have credibility. Surgery techniques to
seamlessly switch faces and body weight don't exist
(bone structure, especially teeth, are conveniently
ignored). Anything goes in the action scenes: Cage
and Travolta frequently outrun bullets, surviving
endless situations that would kill anybody else.
This scene is typical: Travolta is in a room with
a glass roof. A body falls through the roof,
shattering glass everywhere. Travolta is not
only unharmed, he doesn't even duck. Even some
non-action scenes don't make much sense, such as
the opener with Cage and the Tabernacle choir,
and the internment of the Troy brothers in a
maximum security prison without a trial.
Travolta probably loved his role. He gets to
play a creepy villain whom everybody thinks is a
hero. It's a better role than Cage has, who
plays a hero whom everybody thinks is a villain.
Travolta's character can do bad things and get
away with it, while Cage can't do bad things
and can't get away with anything.
In supporting roles is Archer's long-suffering
wife (Joan Allen) and his rebellious teenage daughter
(Dominique Swaim). Troy has a brilliant but
creepy criminal brother (Alessandro Nivola) and
a supermodel for a common-law wife (Gina Gershon). (50/100)
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