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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	1997
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	John Woo
Genre:	Hokey sci-fi action guff
Starring:	John Travolta, Nicolas Cage
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119094/
Tagline:	To destroy your enemy, you must find him, face him, and then... become him.
Favourite line:	"Hey Sean, how's your dead son?"

Very silly, very noisy action sci-fi guff from Hong Kong's Sultan of Stunts John Woo.

The plot.
Nicolas Cage is Castor Troy, supercriminal, one of the most wanted men on the planet, involved in arms, drugs and terrorism.
John Travolta is Sean Archer, a cop haunted by the death of his son at the hands of Troy, his sole focus catching the child-killing son of a bitch, to the exclusion of all else, including the love of his wife.
We join the action as Archer finally manages to take down Troy, almost killing him, which wouldn't normally be a problem but, thing is, Troy has planted a bomb somewhere in L.A. and only he and his brother know the exact location, and his brother won't cooperate.
Using a new scientific procedure, Archer is able to take the face of Troy - literally take the face right off and stitch it to his own - to infiltrate the prison gang of Troy's brother.
All goes well until Troy kills everyone who knows about the swap, leaving Archer in prison with another man's face, and Troy on the outside world, acting as husband to Archer's wife......

It's totally ridiculous, of course, but there is no denying the entertainment factor. Cage and Travolta seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves, effectively playing each other, attempting to affect the mannerisms of the other man.
Sure, the plot creaks like an old walrus, but the leads are engaging enough, Cage perfectly suited to the mania driven performance and Travolta is just plain fucking weird anyway, so seems well cast.
The action set pieces are efficiently crafted, as you would expect from Woo, but the movie does suffer from unnecessary length and, had twenty minutes been shaved off in the editing room this would be a genuine action classic.
As it is, damn good fun, but flags towards the conclusion.
Good, though.