Product Details

• Actors: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola, Gina Gershon
• Directors: John Woo
• Writers: Michael Colleary, Mike Werb
• Producers: Barrie M. Osborne, Christopher Godsick, David Permut, Jeff Levine, Jonathan D. Krane
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English, Latin
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: May 26, 1998
• Run Time: 138 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (360 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304618344
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,801 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #2 in	Video > Action & Adventure > Action Directors > John Woo
  #4 in	Video > Action & Adventure > Action Stars > Nicolas Cage
  #4 in	Video > Action & Adventure > Action Stars > John Travolta

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

At his best, director John Woo turns action movies into ballets of blood and bullets grounded in character drama. Face/Off marks Woo's first American film to reach the pitched level of his best Hong Kong work (Hard-Boiled). He takes a patently absurd premise--hero and villain exchange identities by literally swapping faces in science-fiction plastic surgery--and creates a double-barreled revenge film driven by the split psyches of its newly redefined characters. FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) must play the villain to move through the underworld while psychotic terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) becomes a perversely paternal family man while using every tool at his disposal to destroy his nemesis. Travolta vamps Cage's tics and flamboyant excess with the grace of a dancer after his transformation from cop to criminal, while Cage plays the sullen, bottled-up agent excruciatingly trapped behind the face of the man who killed his son. His attempts to live up to the terrorist's reputation become cathartic explosions of violence that both thrill and terrify him. This is merely icing on the cake for action fans, the dramatic backbone for some of the most visceral action thrills ever. Woo fills the screen with one show-stopping set piece after another, bringing a poetic grace to the action freakout with sweeping camerawork and sophisticated editing. This marriage of melodrama and mayhem ups the ante from cops-and-robbers clichés to a conflict of near-mythic levels. --Sean Axmaker

Amazon.com

At his best, director John Woo turns action movies into ballets of blood and bullets grounded in character drama. Face/Off marks Woo's first American film to reach the pitched level of his best Hong Kong work (Hard-Boiled). He takes a patently absurd premise--hero and villain exchange identities by literally swapping faces in science-fiction plastic surgery--and creates a double-barreled revenge film driven by the split psyches of its newly redefined characters. FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) must play the villain to move through the underworld while psychotic terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) becomes a perversely paternal family man while using every tool at his disposal to destroy his nemesis. Travolta vamps Cage's tics and flamboyant excess with the grace of a dancer after his transformation from cop to criminal, while Cage plays the sullen, bottled-up agent excruciatingly trapped behind the face of the man who killed his son. His attempts to live up to the terrorist's reputation become cathartic explosions of violence that both thrill and terrify him. This is merely icing on the cake for action fans, the dramatic backbone for some of the most visceral action thrills ever. Woo fills the screen with one show-stopping set piece after another, bringing a poetic grace to the action freakout with sweeping camerawork and sophisticated editing. This marriage of melodrama and mayhem ups the ante from cops-and-robbers clichés to a conflict of near-mythic levels. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars John Woo's Best Hollywood Film, September 18, 2007

By	Cubist (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Face/Off (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) (DVD)

It took two Hollywood films (Hard Target and Broken Arrow) before John Woo was allowed to cut loose with his trademark style on Face/Off. The result was his most commercially and critically successful American film at that point in his career. However, for fans of his Hong Kong films, this one seemed like a highlight reel from his earlier work as Woo recycled many of his signature shots Birds flying in slow motion? Check. Guy Leaping in the air while firing two guns simultaneously? Check. Unfortunately, Face/Off marks the apex of his Hollywood career. Woo has done nothing since that's been as good. So, to celebrate the film's 10th anniversary, Paramount has revisited the film with a brand new special edition.

Woo works hard to sell the film's admittedly outlandish gimmick by throwing all kinds of scientific mumbo jumbo at us and lingering on shots of spiffy looking technology. The swapping of identities also allows the filmmaker to examine one of his favourite themes: how two people can exhibit similar characteristics but be on opposite sides of the law and on opposite sides of the moral spectrum. It is nice to see Woo finally given a decent-sized budget to play with and two big-time movie stars like Cage and Travolta to work with. Despite a few audacious glimmers, like staging a chaotic gunfight around a child listening to "Under the Rainbow," we still get a recycling of Woo's stylistic trademarks. However, this can be somewhat forgiven as it was the first real exposure for many North Americans to his work on a mainstream level.

The first disc features an audio commentary by director John Woo and screenwriters Mike Werb and Michael Colleary. Woo says that he initially passed on the project because he didn't think that he could do a science fiction film, but after working with CGI on Broken Arrow, felt more comfortable with the idea. The writers say that Woo concentrated on the characters and their emotions in their conversations together.

Also included is an additional commentary with Werb and Colleary that features a lot of repeated comments from the previous track. Werb and Colleary stress that they wanted to write an action film with a villain that was just as interesting as the hero.

There are six deleted scenes and alternate ending with optional commentary by Woo, Werb and Colleary. There's a nice, reflective moment where Archer spends the night in his dead son's room before his surgery and also two action sequences that are extended.

The second disc has a well-made documentary entitled, "The Light and The Dark: Making Face/Off" that can be viewed in five separate featurettes or altogether. Cage and Travolta talk about how they approached their roles, mimicking each other. Cast and crew praise Woo and his signature style and how well he works with actors. The film's elaborate practical, visual effects and stunts are all examined. Finally, Woo sums up the film - for him, it's all about family and how Archer achieves closure with his.

"John Woo: A Life in Pictures" is a 30-minute profile of the filmmaker, from his humble childhood, living poor in a bad neighbourhood to a successful Hollywood director. It also takes a brief look at some of his key Hong Kong work but nothing too detailed for hardcore fans. This doc acts mainly as a primer for newcomers to his work.

Finally, a theatrical trailer.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Special Features include no new interviews with Cage or Travolta....., October 9, 2007

By	Tuco (Phoenix, Az USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Face/Off (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) (DVD)

We already know this is a great action film with superb performances from both Travolta and Cage so I will just comment on the features:

Featurettes includes a decent amount information on all aspects of the script development, making of, locations, casting, set designs, special effects, weapons and the 'mimic' acting strategies for Cage/Travlota playing each other. Also includes 7 deleted scenes, a biography-type feature covering the life and career of director John Woo, and the original theatrical trailer.

The greatest disappointment here is that while several cast/crew members appear in newly filmed interviews, both Travolta and Cage participate only by way of vintage interviews filmed back when the movie was actually being made. You would think they would have been proud enough of this great film to come back to document it for posterity sake...

This DVD is probably worth the upgrade for fans, especially if you can manage to get a few bucks for your old copy.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard boiled action, August 3, 2000

By A Customer

Castor Troy a terrorist has planted a deadly bomb somewhere in L.A and now he is in a coma,The FBI has to dispose it and save the city, How!.You could ask his brother phollex but this guy is a paranoid and would not talk to anyone besides his brother.So what do you do, Simple you ask Sean Archer a Fellow FBI agent who knows troy very well to do a special surgery that takes his face off and replaces it with that of castor troy. Everything goes fine but Troy wakes up from the coma and bullied the doctors to put the face of archer.And Now we have two guys running arround with each others face.

The plot is yes as plausable as winged pigs,Then how does it works because john travolta and nick cage makes us belive.The film is directed by ace hongkong director john Woo. And not surprisingly it has one of the best action sences ever seen in a hollywood film. An extended helicopter stunt,A climatic boat chase,A dizzy seuence on an oil rig.The action sences are truely poetric.But the action doesnt quite swamp the story line.

Do you know the writers actually wrote the for arnold and stallone why didnt that happen it could be more interesting that way.