John Travolta is detective Sean Archer who's son is killed by Castor Troy (Nicholas Cage). But not only is Troy a child murderer, he is also an international terrorist who has planted a nuke type bomb somewhere or other. But Troy is in a coma so he can't tell anyone where it is...

Plot point to be resolved: How can we get the whereabouts of that bomb out of Troy's brother, who is being held in prison?

OK, we got an idea: How'bout we slice off Troy's face, slice off Archers, put Troy's face on Archer so Archer (as Troy) can get Troy's brother to tell him where he put the bomb... Sounds simple enough, huh kids? OK, guess what fans, it's not that simple...

Ridiculous plot alert throughout. Impossible stunt back flippage warning. Scenes of smoking with no face advisory.

"This movie is ridiculous on so many levels, but at least they don't have a talking donkey."

"Even Elvis Presley would have turned this movie down."

"This movie reminded me of a comic I once started reading at the dentist. I had root canal work soon after. What spoiled this movie for me was that I didn't have any root canal work to look forward to afterwards."

"OK! the stunts are fantastic!"

"If anyone recommends this movie to you, slap them until they come to their senses."

Sean Archer manages to prove he is not Castor Troy when his wife (a nurse) takes a blood sample. Archer finds Troy had a son who is the same age as Archer's son was when he was killed.

After the inevitable shoot-out, Troy is killed. Archer has his old face returned to him. Archer takes the boy back to his family who all hug together for the new beginning set to begin as soon as this damn interminable movie ends...

An utterly excruciatingly awful plot, redeemed a tiny bit with some very fine special effects. However it is all a load of old nonsense and they really should have known better.

An amazingly bad movie considering everyone involved with it.

September 7 , 2003