Face/Off DVD Review:

Its an action film. Its directed by the living legend John Woo, its stars Nicolas Cage - the same man who played Cameron Poe in Con Air & John Travolta who was the joint lead in Pulp Fiction. Need I go on? I needn't but I will.

All 3 of these legends put in stunning performances in the film, particuarly John Woo. Given a plot that is totally unbelievable on paper, Woo takes it and makes it quite believable and realistic. He could have just spent millions on wild special effects, instead he makes a film which is little short of perfection. The plot surrounds John Travolta & Nic Cage swapping faces in order for Caster Troy to be a cop and be recognised as Archer. Both actors thus have to play both parts during the film, a difficult task by any stretch of the imagination. The film thus derives into a battle of wits between Troy & Archer (Travolta & Cage).

Whilst the direction is intelligent, stunning and makes this film surely what it is. It has to be said that Nic Cage & John Travolta both put in what with any ordinary actor would be the performances of their career, and even with these too giants of the silver screen, their performances are nigh-on their best. Cage delivers a calm, cool performance as Troy and an emotional, heartfelt performance as Archer. However, Travolta has to be singled out as the man who really stealed the show particuarly with his performances as Sean Archer.

The cinematography of this film matches the directing and acting with lot of slow motion pictures and and gunplay - making it possibly one of the best all round action films of all time.

Audio & Visual:
The usual given Dolby Surround Sound 5.1, as with all modern DVDs, and indeed the anamorphic 2.35:1 (21:9) widescreen gives a clear and crisp picture quality which really does justice to the action-packed work of Woo. The audio is better, definatly benefits from the Dolby 5.1, with the sub-woofer getting a good workout. A good mixing job on the dramatic scenes gives a clear dialouge from the outset.

Extras:
My version of Face/Off is a re-release. The previous version was a flip-disc set up, but with modern films there is multi-layered DVDs given the option to put the entire film onto that one disc. There was no extras on that disc. This disc, however, does have extras but it is not what fans of Woo & Cage were looking for. The Action Overload sequence lasts just over a minute and is frankly useless though does give one's surround sound a good workout. While the official trailers for Face/Off and for some reason known only to themselves, a trailer for Pearl Harbour, pointless really. Lastly biographies of the cast. Most people know the history of Cage, Travolta and Woo anyway, plus these are a given and rarely re-visited on any disc.

Overall:
4.75/5 - The film in itself is a masterpeice, as a John Woo fanatic, I feel this is his greatest work. The only thing that lets it down slightly is the lack of a decent extras package. However, if you haven't seen this film, your missing out.

Phil Andrews

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