First of all, films involving people being stuck in a foreign body have been way overdone in Hollywood, including Freaky Friday, All of Me, Vice Versa, 18 Again, Big, Like Father Like Son and, if you want to stretch it, Jack. Furthermore, the plot of this film had more holes than my ears. The whole face-swapping concept is just a little silly. The film shows doctors cutting a line around the patient's face, sticking on a suction cup type thing and lifting it off and then plastering a new face on. This seems just a little too easy for me. What about bone structure? Ok, ok, I know they talk about this thing that goes under the skin and is molded to your skull, but it would take an act of God to turn John Travolta's chin into Nicolas Cage's. And what about the rest of the body? So they suck fat out of Travolta, stick some extra into Cage, but what about height? What about muscle? Furthermore, I find it very difficult to believe that a couple of hours after this massive surgical procedure that affects the entire body, the subject is hopping around as good as new.

But let's suspend belief for a moment and look at the rest of the film. There are a host of other elements that I'm not ready to believe. The doctors, who I assume are supposed to be some of the most highly qualified doctors around, are so sure that Castor Troy is permanently a vegetable that they leave him totally unattended. Once Castor wakes up, the medical clinic is so badly guarded that Castor's cronies are able to just waltz in without any problems. Another problem I had was that Castor, completely looking like Archer, is able to completely convince his ultra-paranoid brother Pollux of who he really is. Yet another issue was how Archer was able to break out of what is made out to be the most maximum security prison in the country with a spur-of-the-moment plan. If it was really that easy, wouldn't all kinds of people have done it already? And isn't it a lucky coincidence that with a few words Archer is able to convince another convict, who previously hated and tried to kill him and who also had just come from having electrical currents running through his head, to help him escape?

I also didn't like the way that the Castor Troy character was made to be such an over-the-top clown. The reason I have a problem with this is that I suspect it was done so that once the characters were switched, it would be easier for Travolta to impersonate Troy and easier for Cage to impersonate Archer impersonating Troy. Both Travolta and Cage are good enough actors that they could have pulled it off if Troy had been a little more toned down, and the general public is intelligent enough that they don't need a giant blinking red arrow to recognize the switch.

I enjoyed the attempt made to add a psychological aspect to this film, playing with the whole idea of identity. At one point Archer and Troy face each other from opposite sides of a two-sided mirror, each pointing a gun at the other and at his own reflection. But I think that the results of that attempt were both half-assed and a bit hokey. Nothing about this entire film impressed me. It wasn't boring or painful to sit through, but I just don't think it has anything to offer other than an interesting idea and lots of shooting.