It’s one thing to not recognize your face in the morning because you look awful, it’s quite another if you started out as looking like John Travolta but end up looking like Nicholas Cage. “Face/Off” is another entertaining John Woo action drama that has a surprising amount of substance for a mainstream Hollywood action film. Both actors give terrific performances checking the scenery where appropriate (and it often is) and with terrific support from a strong cast. I’m not sure how wise it was for Paramount to release this on the anniversary of 9/11 (given the theme and story involving a ticking time bomb in L.A.) it could be seen as rather tasteless. ***

Travolta is the good guy initially playing FBI agent Sean Archer. Archer has been trying to bring down criminal Castor Troy (Cage) for some time but he becomes obsessed with destroying him and his organization when Troy accident kills Archer’s son. When Archer takes down Troy he ends up comatose but there’s a problem; it seems that Troy has set a bomb somewhere in Los Angeles that is ticking away and its location is locked in Troy’s mind. The only people who might know are members of Troy’s gang and the only way to get inside their gang is to become Troy. That’s what Archer does. Using a new process that allows a face to be removed surgically and grafted to another man’s face, Archer becomes Troy in order to infiltrate the Troy organization. Identity confusion ensues when Troy comes out of his coma (quite upset that he doesn’t have a face) and uses the same process to become Archer and track the undercover FBI agent. ---

Image & Sound:

“Face/Off” looks as if a plastic surgeon has been at work; the film looks marvelous with colors that pop and terrific detail. Audio jumps right out at you in an effective and occasionally quirky 5.1 mix. Fans may want to be aware, however, that an HD-DVD version of the film will be appearing October so they may want to wait to pick up this new and improved version. ----

Disc 1 features two audio commentaries one with director Woo and writers Michael Collary and Mike Werb and the other featuring the writers by themselves. The better of the two commentary tracks feature the trio. ***

We also get deleted and alternate scenes with optional commentary by Woo, Werb and Collary. ***

Disc 2 features a terrific 5 part documentary that runs just over an hour and a 30 minute short documentary on Woo’s career. The former focuses exclusively on the making of the film and is broken down under such interesting titles as “Sci-Fi/Human Emotion”, “Cast/Characters”, “Wood/Hollywood”, etc. and is filled with plenty of storyboards, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage on the making of the film. ***

“John Woo: A Life in Pictures” focuses on Woo’s career to date. Going back to the director’s beginning shooting action films overseas, his eventual success at jumping the pond and making a splash in America, it’s a fascinating glimpse into a very talented action director. ***

Closing things out we get the original theatrical trailer for the film. Everything is presented in anamorphic widescreen (hurrah!) which is a refreshing change compared to many other films with new featurettes. ---

Final Words: