Face/Off (1997)

In order to stop a bomb from blowing up Los Angeles, a cop (John Travolta) must take on the identity of the fiendish Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage). Little does he know that Troy has also taken on his identity. Yes it is as ludicrous as it sounds.

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When you grow up with strange things, you come to accept them as normal. As a child of the late 90’s I grew up watching a lot of films starring Nicolas Cage. His reign as big-budget action hero coincided perfectly with me beginning to be allowed to watch R-rated movies. I distinctly remember my friend David’s dad taking him and I to see The Rock on a weekend afternoon when we were all of 12 years old. Recently I caught a bit of that film on TV somewhere and was really taken aback by how over the top Cage’s acting choices were. Who let him get away with those line deliveries? Looking back, I’m thankful that he was the action hero I grew up with. Poor kids growing up today with Jason Statham and Vin Diesel. I don’t care how cheesy, sappy and over-the-top Face/Off might be, I will take it over the entire Transformers series any day of the week. Castor Troy could easily take down both Optimus Prime and Megatron with sheer gusto!