The film clearly paved the way for everything from Ah-nold on the lam in The Running Man to the parody-parade Series 7: The Contenders.
The film draws its high-voltage forward momentum from the collision of semi-documentary procedural and downbeat rogue-cop revisionism.
De Palma’s fever dream of fear and desire may never get the deluxe Blu-ray transfer it so richly deserves.
The body of Ray’s best work reveals a laudable consistency of viewpoint, thematic cohesion, and aesthetic distinctiveness.
The film is sure to deliver a whopping sugar rush, as well as the inevitably sour letdown.
Only completists (and, possibly, masochists) should bother to face off against Face to Face.