Quotes
Because I believe that the second half of this movie may be one of the best second acts of any film in the last 10 years, I'm not going any further with the storyline. To use the words of Sean Archer during this act, "The plot thickens." - Keith Simanton
What "Face/Off" seems to say is that the outer life we create of father, policeman, crook, introvert, extrovert and, more important, how people expect us to act in those roles dictate what we are and how we behave just as much as our true selves. - Keith Simanton
Face/Off is the best action movie of the summer, and it works so well not because of its action scenes -- who cares about watching another attempt to stop a plane on a runway? -- but because of its acting, and the way its intricate screenplay features movie acting in a way never before attempted in such a high-profile movie. - Gene Siskel
The premise is hard to explain. - Gene Siskel
Travolta's character thus enters prison wearing Cage's face to find out the bombs' location from other terrorists. But to create that scene, actor Cage, of course, is playing his own character as if he were being played by Travolta's character. - Gene Siskel
The high-tech stuff is flawlessly done, but the intriguing elements of the movie involve the performances. - Roger Ebert
For the Archer character, who begins inside Travolta's body and then spends most of the movie inside Cage's. - Roger Ebert
But of course it is Travolta who sees Travolta's teenage daughter, because it is Travolta playing the Cage character. - Roger Ebert
All through the movie, you find yourself reinterpreting every scene as you realize the "other" character is "really" playing it. - Roger Ebert
Travolta, when in the grip of Castor's persona, even gets to make some disparaging comments about his own chin. It's that kind of movie. - Kenneth Turan
Face/Off, the new John Woo film, is superb late-pagan entertainment. I can see it on a double bill with "The Burning of 100 Christians" or "Watch the Alligators Eat the Slaves" at some suburban Roman multiplex, circa A.D. 212. - Stephen Hunter
Almost indefensibly violent, the film is one of those whirligigs of wit, barbaric energy, blood spatters and firepower that will be adored by the morally retarded among us -- like me -- and loathed by the morally superior. But who has ever cared about them? - Stephen Hunter
A face, of course, isn't just skin; it's also muscles, skull, teeth, all of which are left alone. Moreover, face isn't but a fraction of identity -- what about body language, hand size, finger shape, more intimate measurements, odor, musculature? What about waist? Cage must be a good 34; Travolta's easily busting that big 40. - Stephen Hunter
The movie evidently takes place in 1997 by way of The Jetsons. - Paul Tatara
The movie starts ending after about 90 minutes, and continues to end, over and over again, for another hour. - Paul Tatara
Don't ask me what birds are doing flying around inside a church, but it sure looks cool. - Paul Tatara
Face/Off is simply the best and most disturbing horror movie to come along since The Silence of the Lambs. - Jay Boyar
This astonishingly perverse film might have been unbearably perverse if not for the surprising subtlety of its observations. - Jay Boyar
Yeah, (John Woo) can direct an action scene. And Michelangelo could paint a ceiling. - Quentin Tarantino
So, in a truly jaw-dropping twist, Sean is asked to disguise himself as Castor in order to get into prison and pump Pollux. And he does -- through an operation that literally removes both men's faces and puts Castor's visage onto Sean. - Michael Wilmington
Then they slide into each other's skin. - Michael Wilmington