Face/Off - One of the most over-the-top films ever made (and great fun too)

‘Face/Off’ is a kind of simple film for simple people (and I’m including myself in that demographic).  Take one bad guy (Nicholas Cage – cranked up to 11) and then, through a series of bizarre and totally implausible events, he finds himself with his face – literally – swapped with the good guy/cop (John Travolta –also doing his best to crank his performance up to 11) who’s out to catch him.  Now, no one believes which one is which and the two of them start trying to take over each other’s lives (while trying to murder each other, obviously).

If that brief plot summary hasn’t made you ask more than a few questions regarding the hows and whys of it all, then you really are an expert at suspending your disbelief.  Most people would already be picking holes in the story.  So, if you’re looking for a watertight plot with no holes in it, you probably should really skip this one.

Luckily, Face/Off his just so much fun that you’ll find it easy to gloss over the general absurdities of it all, sit back, break open the popcorn and just roll with it.  It is one of the most obviously over-the-top films ever made and, if the plot wasn’t over-the-top enough, then the two leads – Cage and Travolta – spend the film constantly trying to outdo each other as to how extreme they can make their performances.  So, take the over-the-top film, add the completely over-the-top performances then, just to finish it off, add the completely unrealistic gunfights and those weird ‘Hollywood-type’ explosions where fireworks seem to shoot out of the flames.

What you effectively have here is a B-movie with a decent cast and budget.  It carries the film through and will always elevate it over the general mediocre action flicks that go straight to DVD.  Basically, it’s a classic – not in the same way as the ‘Godfather’ or ‘Empire Strikes Back,’ but it is a classic for what it is – and what it is is big, dumb, stupid fun.  So, if you can appreciate that sort of film, you should definitely get something out of this.

Best bit: Nicholas Cage dressed as a priest ‘headbanging’ in a chorus.  I will remember that until the day I die.

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one