Face/Off (1997)
Average Rating: 7.9/10
Reviews Counted: 82
Fresh: 75 | Rotten: 7
John Travolta and Nicolas Cage play cat-and-mouse (and literally play each other) against a beautifully stylized backdrop of typically elegant, over-the-top John Woo violence.
Average Rating: 8.4/10
Critic Reviews: 26
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 1
John Travolta and Nicolas Cage play cat-and-mouse (and literally play each other) against a beautifully stylized backdrop of typically elegant, over-the-top John Woo violence.
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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 446,206
Movie Info
The third of John Woo's American-made feature films, Face/Off stars John Travolta as Sean Archer, an FBI agent obsessed with capturing Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage), a criminal genius who years before killed Archer's son while trying to assassinate the agent. Archer's single-minded pursuit of Troy has caused serious harm to his marriage, but Archer thinks the light may have appeared at the end of the tunnel when a seriously wounded Troy is captured in a bloody shootout. However, it turns out that
Jun 27, 1997 Wide
Oct 6, 1998
Paramount Pictures
Watch It Now
Cast
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John Travolta
Sean Archer -
Nicolas Cage
Castor Troy -
Joan Allen
Eve Archer -
Alessandro Nivola
Pollux Troy -
Gina Gershon
Sasha Hassler -
Dominique Swain
Jamie Archer -
Nick Cassavetes
Dietrich Hassler -
Harve Presnell
Lazzaro -
Colm Feore
Dr. Malcolm Walsh -
John Carroll Lynch
Prison Guard Walton -
CCH Pounder
Hollis Miller -
Robert Wisdom
Tito -
Margaret Cho
Wanda -
Jamie Denton
Buzz -
Matt Ross
Loomis -
Joe Bob Briggs
Shock Technician -
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Face/Off Trailer & Photos
All Critics (82) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (75) | Rotten (7) | DVD (27)
[A] gorgeously shot, repetitively violent, occasionally repellent, sometimes silly and consistently trashy fantasy.
Top CriticFor all its fiery explosions, Face/Off just kind of implodes.
It's sick, slick and sensational.
In Face/Off, Woo sweeps us away again, into a world of wild action, heroism, villainy and double faces that turn deadly.
A knockout new thriller by John Woo.
Face/Off is a full-blooded, movie-going experience. It's 100 percent movie.
Face/Off is a giant step for a filmmaker known more for action sequences than psychological insight.
An engaging and at times sophisticated story of identity and behavior, wearing the leering face of a farcical action cartoon.
What really makes Face/Off tick, what sells the movie more than anything else, are the dazzling performances from the two leading men.
Woo more than delivers in the overblown action stakes. It's also patently evident that both stars are having a ball sending up each other's mannerisms.
Face/Off is a masterpiece equal to the action classics Seven Samurai, The Wild Bunch and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
[Woo] benefits from the dual performances of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, who alternately glower and boogie their way through creepy material that would have been far beyond the reach of lesser stars.
The visuals are impossibly glossy and the sound impossibly loud. Every frame glistens with that antiseptic precision of advertising. Even the slightest emotional vibration is writ in 100-point type,
Cage is good, Travolta is better. There is a glee to his performance, a sheer joy at playing two roles in one. He's having a rip-roaringly good time, and so are we.
This is the ultimate Woo movie, but while his fans will enjoy every minute, others will find it too long, repetitive, and violent.
Though the plotting is preposterous, this is John Woo's most successful American movie, demonstrating his unique signature as auetur applied to a a blockbuster.
Overwrought, sci-fi crime thriller. Not for kids.
Audience Reviews for Face/Off
Super Reviewer
The movie is about a terrorist named Castor Troy and the cop, Sean Archer who has a personal vendetta in putting him away.
The movie is packed with action and great performances.
This will always be my favorite Travolta and Cage film. "
Super Reviewer
Movies Like Face/Off
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- Dietrich Hassler: Hey Sean, how's your dead son?
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- Dietrich Hassler: What's the matter? You look like you just fucked your mother.
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- Sean Archer: I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave.
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- Sean Archer: You can't give back what you've taken from me.
- Castor Troy: Oh well, plan B. Let's just kill each other.
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- Castor Troy: If you dress like Halloween, ghouls will try to get in your pants.
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- Castor Troy: Oh well... plan B: Let's just kill each other.
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Foreign Titles
- Volte/Face (FR)
