Video Review: 'Face/Off'

The small screen can’t contain the swooping camera work of action auteur John Woo. But even on video, Face/Off‘s balletic gun battles look spectacular. So, too, do Travolta and Cage, who take turns gobbling scenery as an obsessed FBI agent and a manic master terrorist who literally trade faces to impersonate each other. Woo makes this preposterous premise soar with an outrageously inventive plot that never stops hurtling forward and 3-D characters that never stop surprising us. Going beyond inspired grandstanding, Travolta and Cage get to the heart of their characters, investing them with a soulfulness that doesn’t need a wide screen (though a wide-screen laserdisc is due Dec. 23) to make a major impact. B+