I have a confession to make--I love Con Air. You probably know that already, so deep is my love for this movie I tend to talk about it a lot. You know what I don't talk about a lot? The other 1997 classic Nic Cage movie that came out two weeks after my beloved Con Air--Face/Off. Nic Cage may be able to eat a peach for hours, but I could watch this movie for hours. Which is good, because it's over 2 hours long, so you know, you need that amount of stamina to get through it in one sitting.

via GIPHY

So today, I'm going to put Con Air aside, and tell you why I love this movie so much.

The Premise

Have I mentioned this movie is about dudes swapping faces and then messing with each other?! Because that's what Face/Off is about. See, the title can be taken literally (faces off) but also these characters are facing off against each other. This movie has layers.

The Character Names are Ridiculous

People--Nic Cage, who is the bad guy, you know what his name is in the movie? Castor Troy. His weirdo brother's name? Pollux. LOL. It's a lot.

Children are Interchangeable

Castor is a bad guy who killed good guy Sean Archer's son for reasons that are not obvious at all but eventually turns out to be an oopsie. Castor also has a son who we're introduced to right before a shoot-out because why not? So, spoilers--Castor dies, and the movie ends with Sean bringing home Castor's son to raise as his own because that's definitely a thing and everyone just accepts it.

John "I'm John Woo" Woo

Con Air is a perfect movie, but if it needed one area of improvement it's that John Woo didn't direct it. He did, however, direct this classic. Which involves a lot of shoot outs and a boat chase. It's the best.

This shoot-out is top notch, too:

This Scene

I mean, I could go on, explaining why Face/Off is fantastic, but at this point, I want to go re-watch Face/Off so you're on your own, friends.