Face Off is one of John Woo’s great Hollywood productions. It featured John Travolta as FBI Agent Sean Archer and his archnemesis Nicholas Cage as criminal mastermind Castor Troy. At the start Archer captures Troy but then finds out that he planted a biological bomb in Los Angeles. The FBI has to find out where it is so it uses an experimental procedure to switch faces between the two so Archer can pose as Troy within his gang and discover where the bomb is. The problem is afterward Troy escapes and with Archer’s face infiltrates the FBI to carry out more crimes. The dilemma is whether Archer can get his face and identity back.

The fun part of the film is to watch the Troy version of Archer. He shows up at the house and tells his daughter that she’ll be seeing a lot of changes because papa’s got a brand new bag to quote James Brown. On the other hand you get a bit of the crazy Cage when Archer realizes he’s stuck with the face of his most hated enemy.

The next thing that sticks out is that Woo brought a lot of his famous action sequences to the film. The opening has Archer and Cage with two guns firing in each hand. Then they have a stand-off where they stick their guns in each other’s face. The climax takes place in a church with birds another Woo aesthetic. What was good for Hong Kong obviously worked in Hollywood too.

Cage and Travolta do great jobs with their parts and they both get to act bad which was fun. Woo got to show off his directing chops as well to a Western audience.
C

..but still good entertainment. Full of holes as big as its brutality and sappiness. Wasn't sure at some point who to root for. The good vs bad gets muddled up as the faces on the two leads or the 2 main characters. Movie timeline must have been set in the far future (although no evidence of that anywhere) where scars don't appear except when inflicted by bullets, and where the facial skeletal structure can be starkly changed to fit that of another human being, (not to mention the body as well??), and where special ops can basically abduct a much sought after terrorist and keep him unchained and unattended in some private operating room with a working telephone and without the knowledge of other law enforcement. Did he have to dial 9 to call his bad a** friends from the fancy private operating room? Other than that, we are asked to accept James Bond-style, non stop, action where everyone gets hurt except of course our main characters. Cheesy but totally memorable from the first time I watched it in 1997. Years later, it's still entertaining but not worthy of a second watch. Oh, and by the way, if the father is such a psycho, would you want to adopt his son? Just sayin'. Anyway, it's a real cheesy ending.. as if human beings are so easily replaceable.

This cinematic masterpiece features John Travolta and Nic Cage in the roles that defined them for a generation. The film's sci-fi premise - good guy with a tragic backstory and maniac bad guy swap bodies/identities - is a cautionary tale about science going too far. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll sit with your mouth agape at John Woo's brilliantly choreographed fight sequences. FACE/OFF is a film that everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime.

Big name stars and lots of action seems to be the only things about this movie that could possibly explain the high ratings. Honestly, the acting isn't great, the plot is pathetic, and to say you have to set aside common sense to believe any of it is an understatement.
The idea that just overlaying a face on someone else's structure would make you look like them (yes, they try to explain that they did more, but to have immediate recovery from any of it?) is laughable. That a blood type would be the thing that convinces a woman that a man is not her husband and not just the fact that his behavior is night and day different... that a daughter wouldn't be freaked out by her Dad leering at her in her panties only to have him "suddenly" start smoking? Nobody would react the way the characters in this disaster of a film did, I know this is fiction, but come on, REALLY?!?

I suppose you could watch this to see the most cringe-worthy performance of Nicolas Cage's career? So sad to see what he did after Raising Arizona, which he was phenomenal in. Travolta was in his comeback mode here. He was better in dramas than action flicks back then. Now, he is not good in anything so this movie somewhat foreshadowed his career.

This is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, the studio didn’t give this film a quality remaster and the Blu-Ray transfer suffers as a result. Lots of artifacts in source (hair or dust on quite a few frames throughout). Color and saturation are okay. Overall, this excellent film deserves a better digital transfer.

I watched this movie as a kid and still love it, delivery was super quick I got it in just less than or about 24 hrs. This is the special collectors edition, I believe it has a cardboard casing but the one I received today did not, also has a fairly big crack on the case luckily no damage to the blu-Ray. I’m not upset about it much but just creating a review for people who do. 3-1/2 stars for quality and care of the disc, I’m off to watch the movie now ✌️

I didn't make it through the scene where Cage is trying to escape with his brother. The absurdity of the chase down the runway was just too much. Assuming that's the kind of rubbish strewn about throughout the rest of the film, I think I saved myself a couple hours of needless suffering. And some of the dialogue even in the early scenes is way over the top. "We'll take a break when the case breaks!!!" Just... no.