Face/Off: You Won’t Lose Face Buying This Blu-ray

Studio: Disney/Touchstone Pictures
Starring: John Travolta (Swordfish/Grease/The Punisher) as Sean Archer, Nicolas Cage (Next / Gone In 60 Seconds) as Castor Troy, Joan Allen (The Bourne Supremacy/The Bourne Ultimatum/The Contender) as Eve Archer, Alessandra Nivola (Jurassic Park/Best Laid Plans) as Pollux Troy
Directed by: John Woo (Mission Impossible 2/Hard Boiled)
Subtitles: English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Thai, and Bahasa

The Story
Director John Woo has been the king of action movies in China for many years. Face/Off sees him bring his unique style of film making to the west in a no-holds-barred actionfest.

Cage plays Castor Troy, a terrorist for hire who is being pursued by cop Sean Archer (Travolta). This is personal after Troy killed his 6-year-old son six years earlier. After an exciting chase involving a Learjet, a helicopter, and numerous cars and a subsequent gunfight, Troy is left in a coma and younger brother Pollux (Nivola) is captured. The problem is earlier that day, Troy planted a biological bomb somewhere in L.A and only he and Pollux know its whereabouts. Pollux will talk only to his big brother, so it is decided to surgically swap Castor’s face with Archer’s in a top secret operation in an attempt to fool Pollux into releasing the whereabouts of said bomb.

Whilst in a top security prison, all goes to plan - Pollux gives Archer the location. Unfortunately, Castor has awoken from his slumber and is a little pissed at having no face. After forcing the surgeons to give him Archer’s face, Castor kills everyone who knew of the operation. Now he has Archer’s face and his life. The first thing he does is talk younger bro into telling the authorities where the bomb is, and fake Archer is a public hero, as well as moving into the real Archer’s home and taking over his family.

Meanwhile, the real Archer is stuck in the top secret prison with no hope of getting out. With everyone after him, he must escape, capture Troy, and regain his life and family. When this movie opened theatrically in 1997, many people said it was a bit farfetched, swapping faces and all, but a few years ago, this indeed did happen for real. There’s plenty here for the boys - gunfights, explosions, and OTT action. This is the perfect movie for a boys’ night in. So sit down, open a brew, and enjoy the noise.

The Blu-ray for this movie was meant to be release through Paramount last September, but when Paramount dropped Blu-ray in favour of HD-DVD, this title was unceremoniously shelved. Now that the Mount has come crawling back to Blu-ray with its tail between its legs, I’m sure this will be one of the first titles to be released. If you cannot wait till, then you can always do what i did and order this movie from Japan. Remember Japan is the same zone (A) as the U.S., but this title is region-free anyway, and it is well worth getting, that’s why my score is 9/10.

The Visuals
Touchstone has released this with a high bitrate AVC MPEG-4 encode, as opposed to the HD-DVD’s VC1, and is extremely good, though not as outstanding as some more recent movies such as I,Robot or Casino Royale. There is some shimmering present and also some scenes are a tad soft. This is a very film-like image. Skin tones are excellent, as are black levels and shadow detail. Distant shots are very good. This is most definitely the best this movie has ever looked, truly an excellent visual treat. My score is 8.5/10.

The Audio
I decided to listen to the English uncompressed 5.1 PCM soundtrack, and boy, am I glad I did. This is a bombastic mix and extremely aggressive on all channels. The soundstage is accurate with smooth panning, especially during the numerous explosions and shootouts with bullets whizzing past your ear. It’s pleasing to note that dialog has not been overwhelmed and voices can easily be heard above all the action. Standout moments are the runway chase/gunfight at the beginning and also the gunfight at Castor’s friends’ house. This is a great audio treat and easily matches the superb visuals. Believe me, you won’t be disappointed. My score is 9/10. Also, on this disc were Japanese dts, English, Japanese, and Thai DD 5.1 @ 640kbps, and Portuguese stereo.

The Extras
There’s not much in the way of extras on this BD, unlike the 2-disc Paramount that was planning. We have a rather ropey trailer in SD. Movie Showcase is a collection of 3 key action scenes that allows the viewer to show off his/her system in HD. Action overload is basically a trailer, again showing key action scenes set to the score - it runs for 1 minute and is SD. Also, before you see the movie, you are shown a trailer showcasing Disney titles on Blu-Ray. My score is a dismal 2/10.

Overall Impact
This is an extremely enjoyable action flick. Great cast with superb audio and visuals to show off the numerous explosions and gunfights. A real treat for action junkies. My score is 9/10.

Popularity: 30% [?]