A Familiar Face
L.A. cop Nick Harper (Ricky Schroder - Lonesome Dove) becomes concerned when he tries to contact his little sister who works in Spain but gets no reply. He quickly decides he needs to head out there to find out what is what in Barcelona where his sister worked for a modelling agency. As Nick tries to find her having found the Spanish police unresponsive to his concerns he also finds himself taking on terrorists who appear to be connected to his sister's disappearance.
Face of Terror = Jean Claude Van Damme movie - Jean Claude + Ricky Schroder + 80s action. That is the equation you could use to describe "Face of Terror" a generic action movie which switches out the known action star for Schroder and tries to capture the violence of 80s action movies. The end result is a movie which whilst not terrible is equally not memorable and ends up one of those movies you would probably watch whilst late night channel surfing but not go out of your way for.
So as I said "Face of Terror" is little more than a Van Damme movie but with Van Damme switched out. As such the whole story of a brother looking for his missing sister is not only old hat but exceptionally slim and whilst there is also the terrorist angle it is very clear that the writers went down the cliche route. Maybe the writers wrote it thinking they would attract a big action star for the lead role and without the big action star to work as a distraction the weakness in the storyline are clear to see.
Now there is another reason why I am sure "Face of Terror" was written with a big action star in mind as the action is not only very 80s but also at times brutal in an 80s sort of way. Unfortunately without say Van Damme's persona the action itself end up generic with Ricky Schroder not looking entirely believable when he gives chase or leaps to tackle someone that he is after. The switch though is that the scenes which require Schroder to establish character are much better than you would find in your normal action movie with a recognized action star.
What this all boils down to is that "Face of Terror" is just a generic action movie which has a touch of the 80s action about it. But with out a big action star it comes up short in the action department although Schroder establishes character better than most actions stars.
