The running time is 2 hrs. 20 mins..
Face/Off begins with Cage as Castor Troy and in an assassination attempt on the life of FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta), Troy accidentally also shoots Archer's son. Sean lives through the ordeal and pretty much swears revenge on Castor, stopping at nothing to see his son's murderer dead. Well, early on in the picture Castor is captured along with his little brother Pollux played by Alessandro Nivola. With Castor on his death bed and unconscious the only chance of finding out where he planted his most recent terrorist bomb is through Pollux, but little bro ain't talkin' to anyone other than Castor... Enter... the... FACE OFF!
The only solution is for Archer to take part in an experimental operation in which Castor's face will be placed onto Archer's head, yeah, things get literal in this mudda fugga. So, with a face transplant and a little lipo, Archer becomes Troy and the game is on...
While little bits of dialogue are placed here and there to explain what is going on, poking logic holes in this one is futile, don't waste your time. Instead, sit back and watch as all the ridiculousness of this feature somehow works on such a level that there is never a moment you aren't entertained. One of my favorite moments in revisiting this film was to again see Nick Cassavetes as Dietrich Hassler, one of Castor's boys. Listening to the featurettes and commentaries you will grow to love his performance too... "No more drugs... for that man!"
As a special edition HD DVD this package comes fully equipped. There are two commentary tracks, one with John Woo and writers Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, and a second with just Werb and Colleary. During the commentary Woo is a little hard to comprehend if you pay attention at all to what is on screen, but the best part of the whole thing is the honesty of Werb and Colleary as they point out things they were happy and unhappy with, what was changed, who changed it, why it was changed and so forth. They never seem upset with the production, just open in the process of making it.
Other than the commentaries and the movie, which looks and sounds fantastic by the way as it comes with not only fantastic video but a loud as hell DTS track that makes the action that much more fun, disc one also holds a collection of deleted scenes also with optional commentary. Of the deleted scenes only two are really worth noting; the first being an extended look at the final fight scene and the second being an alternate ending. The alternate ending is the real treat here, and I think it was a good decision to drop it from the theatrical release, but when Woo describes it as his Hitchcock ending and then you watch it, you should enjoy it as much as I did.
The second disc is where you find your making of featurettes and a special documentary feature on director John Woo. The featurettes are great and a lot of fun, but they really would have been improved had they been able to get Cage and Travolta into the studio for new interviews. Instead Cage and Travolta are vintage interviews interspersed with the new stuff. It isn't necessarily distracting, it's just unfortunate.
Overall, special features aside, if you are an action film fan this is the HD DVD to own and if you don't have an HD DVD player then pick up the DVD edition because this is an action film lover's movie. As ridiculous as it is Face/Off seems to work better than the majority of action features and when you can have it in this nifty little special edition why shy away?