Mask of Death (1996)
While attempting to flee from the FBI, the criminal Frank Dallio kills Detective McKenna's wife, Rachel. McKenna himself is shot in the face by the professional killer Lyle Mason, who dies in a car crash shortly thereafter. The FBI persuades McKenna to undergo facial surgery and take the place of Lyle Mason in order to find Dallio and a valuable microchip.
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People are voting emotionally.
Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .
Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
What worse then a movie with Lorenzo Lamas? A movie that has two Lorenzo Lamas's. In a loopy plot that casts him as a cop named McKenna who goes undercover and imitates his evil lookalike when the Russian mob led by Frank Dallilo (Conrad Dunn) kills McKenna's wife. A poor movie all around with no real merit, casting Lorenzo Lamas in two roles is even worse then when Jean-Claude Van Damme played two roles in Double Impact.
An average effort by action hero Lorenzo Lamas. This movie is just another example of the stereotyped role we've come to associate with him: slick hair, sunglasses, black leather and boots, fearsome. I thought the role reversal from the ruthless criminal to the more sensitive cob, and vice versa, was a big flaw. The intention was good, but somehow, between Lamas's lame acting and the more than shallow script, everything fell apart. This movie was was lame and boring. I'd expected more from it, particularly with famed actors such as Chong and Star Wars hero Billy Dee Williams. Wave this one goodbye before you've even said hello.
Predictable, generic cop fare notable only for the many direct similarities to John Woo's Face/Off, which debuted subsequently. The initial sequences, from the speedboat chases to the plastic surgery sessions, are beat for beat the same. Lamas is adequate as the police infiltrator with revenge on his mind. A lot of violence and little plot. Two stars.
Lamas has dual roles as Det Dan McKenna and Russian Mafia liaison Lyle Mason. An FBI surveillance gone wrong gets McKenna's wife killed but not before she takes Mason with her. FBI agent( Billy Dee Williams) notices that Mason and McKenna look alike and with a little help from plastic surgery McKenna becomes Mason. Pain killers that seem to have the side effect of causing McKenna to become violent help to keep the charade going. The violence is never ending - the story line takes a back seat - and Lamas shows off all the right martial art moves.The ending looked like they were hoping for a sequel but it never happened.