Face of Terror (2004) User Reviews

Faith in Barcelona

[jotix100 · 3/10 · 28 April 2006]

It's obvious the director, Bryan Goeres, loves Barcelona. That's the best thing that can be said about this movie that has a look of made for television all over the place. Mr. Goeres likes to work with light weight actors as was also the case with his "Art Heist" that also was shot in Barcelona.

The story tries to capitalize on the world of fashion, crime and terrorism at the same time. This tale of how a Los Angeles detective goes looking for his lost sister Faith after not hearing from her in quite some time, rings false from the opening scenes and the end result is a film that while not horrible to watch, is just as predictable and trite as could be expected with this director at the helm.

"The Face of Terror" has one of the worst performances by an actor in recent memory: Rick Shroeder. His Nick Harper is a man who doesn't register an ounce of emotion throughout the movie. His scenes with lovely Paulina Galvez show absolutely no spark between them. The rest of the cast doesn't have anything to do in a story that doesn't go anywhere because the whole thing is unbelievable.

I found Dirk Pitt

[lastliberal · 5/10 · 5 June 2007]

I recently wrote about the film Shara and the use of Matthew McConaughey as Dirk Pitt. Having read the novels, I found him to be completely inappropriate in the role.

Lo and behold, I think I have found the perfect Dirk Pitt should they decide to turn another Clive Cussler novel into a movie - Rick Schroder, who plays a policeman who comes to Barcelona to find his sister. This alone makes my time spent watching this worthwhile.

But, there was one other good thing to come out of this movie. That was the discovery of Paulina Gálvez. I immediately starting searching for more films of this Spanish/Chilean beauty who did an incredibly good job in this sorry film.

I wish I had spent some time in Barcelona when I went there in 1992. Unfortunately I just spent enough time to get out of the rush hour traffic I had inadvertently found myself in by making a wrong turn - it was a nightmare! Skip this baby.

Okay timewaster

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 11 May 2015]

Despite the low rent nature of the production, FACE OF TERROR is quite fun to watch and serves well as an okay timewaster. It's an action thriller that manages to create a sequence of nifty set-pieces on what is an obviously low budget. There are the requisite fist fights, shoot-outs and foot chases on display here, none of them spectacular but all of them serviceable enough in their own way.

The simple storyline feels like it belongs in a Steven Seagal type movie. It sees an American travelling to Barcelona to investigate the disappearance of his sister. His only lead is a sleazy photographer but before long he gets drawn into a world of terrorism and murder. The film benefits from location shooting in Barcelona which brings out the highs and lows of the city.

The American actors tend to give less naturalistic performances than their Spanish counterparts. Certainly Ricky Schroder makes for a rather dull leading man despite his best efforts; Paulina Galvez is much better as the love interest he teams up with along the way. The villains are rather weak and ineffectual here, particularly SKYLINE's Eric Balfour, although Dean Haglund (who played one of the Lone Gunmen in THE X-FILES) is having a ball as the aforementioned photographer, his character oozing slime throughout. FACE OF TERROR is no great shakes as a movie but I liked it all the same.

Made-for-TV movie in disguise

[qljsystems · 2/10 · 20 April 2005]

This movie trots out its throw-away story with all the cache of a very bad example of a TV movie. All the elements prove it: a predictable plot; a formulaic screenplay; cardboard cutout characters; hackneyed dialogue often delivered with the conviction of someone reading from a cue-card; clichéd situations; neat "just add water and stir" fight scenes; caricature archetypes. The baddies are just a little too cool to be real and Nick Schroder's rebellious good guy role is so predictable that you can almost see the painted footstep positions in every scene. I didn't bother to watch it through, because the outcome's fairly obvious from seeing just the first 20 minutes.

The hot chicks can't compensate for the overall shallowness

[georgegates · 10 August 2004]

First of all i guess you won't expect too much from this movie, well good, because there really isn't much to anticipate from it. The title sounds well and has an even luring attribute, as it tricks one into thinking that this movie deals with the funk and atrocities of the deeds terrorists commit as well as their equally violent and distorted childhoods/life-experience. But this flick actually doesn't deal with that theme at all but rather has a touch as if you are watching some episode from some mediocre action-series, whilst mediocre would even be downplayed, lets say more on a level like the A-Team.

So the level of this movie can be found somewhere between B to C-movie-flick , whereas i would rather grade it closer to C.

So what's it about: A cop, who recently was involved in a shootout in LA, entailing a shot victim (whether or not she survived is unknown) leaves the country to fly to spain in order to look after his sister, who seems to have disappeared. The trigger for that immediate concern of his sister was a credit card withdrawal of about 30k bucks. (It remains unknown throughout the entire movie, what the money was for). The cop follows lead after lead, which directs him into the hands of a beautiful Spanish undercover cop, some lazy bunch of detectives, a weapons dealer and of course a single operating sunnyboy-terrorist (who sees over and over a 5seconds lasting excerpt of his sister and mother going down in a brutal execution). Now it just so happens that the cop's sister was lured into doing heroin, found herself in the hands of the weapons (and all kind of other illegal stuff) dealer, who somehow gave her away to the single-operating-sunnyboy-terrorist and abuses the girls to carry suitcased bombs with them in order to attack all sorts of buildings whose facade are to the distaste of the sunnyboy. In the end the sister, who is now magically cleansed of drug addiction and has a relationship with the terrorist finds her brother, who thwarted a bombing that was only split seconds ago.

Frankly this movie would've been better if they had made a porn movie out of it.

How is the acting? Well the acting performances are so overrated nowadays that is is simply unbelievable. The most common cause that is to blame for a failed movie is the most and second important thing of any movie, that is 1. THE STORYLINE and 2. THE DIRECTOR (and his team). So the performances really weren't responsible to cause a headache whilst watching this movie in the first place.

In the end it is your call whether or not you are intrigued enough to watch this movie. There certainly isn't much in it except the chicks to look out for.

I give it 3/10, due to the fact that this movie failed miserably in portraying terrorist activities in any way, although the title implies otherwise.

Silly, offensive, badly acted, badly directed

[siderite · 4/10 · 3 August 2005]

This is one of those movies that I accidentally came across while surfing the net. Some kid told me it's a good movie, so I watched it. I will regret that decision for as long as I live.

The movie starts with a bomb going off in Barcelona. Now another plot unravels: a violent control freak of an American policeman comes to Barcelona to find his sister. This meaning he beats up everybody until he accidentally comes across evidence that he puts together from pure lack of plot complexity (in other words, the clues are so obvious, even he can't miss them). Eventually he finds his sister. Now the other bomb plot ends: the Palestinian guy that bombs the hell out of Barcelona has actually kidnapped (in the most possible pleasant way) the cops sister. He conveniently dies in the end.

"What?" you say "There wasn't a movie about terrorism and bombs? What about the bomb in the beginning of the movie?". No. Sadly, the bomb was just to make you watch the rest of the movie, as well as the title which had no connection with the plot.

The only good thing about this movie was the performance of the "arab bomber", Californian Eric Balfour. You might know him from "Six Feet Under" or "24". However, as all the other actors played incredibly bad, I might overestimate the man for actually acting.

Nice Mustache by Rick Schroeder!

[explorer7700 · 2/10 · 12 February 2006]

Rick Schroeder really wears the mustache well in this movie. Let me tell you Rick has come a long way since the early days of Silver Spoons. You must give this guy some credit though, you have to make a living somehow. I would have to rate this a D movie. Special effects are some of the worst I have ever seen in a movie. Does anyone know if this made it into any theaters anywhere in the world? I have never acted a day in my life and am confident I could play the role Rick Schroeder played in this movie a 100 times better than he did.

Most importantly lets not forget the mustache. I definitely could not have worn the mustache as well as Rick.

Rick Schroeder's poor performance sinks what might have been a good little film.

[dbborroughs · 3/10 · 26 October 2008]

Rick Schroeder gives the worst performance I've seen him give as a cop chasing after his sister who disappeared in Spain. The trail leads him toward a terrorist group, while the movie leads the audience into blahdom.

The film has by the numbers action, obvious twists and turns and this looks like little more than a foreign TV movie with an American star in the lead. Schroeder is just awful and one wonders how he had any sort of career based on this performance. The rest of the cast is better but since the movie rests on Schroeder's shoulders the film kind of collapses on itself as a result.

I'd take a pass unless you're a big Schroeder fan.

The worst't movie I haven't seen

[roserojesus · 4/10 · 12 July 2006]

what a bad movie, it has a typical Hollywood-style, the characteristic cop of the E.U. fighting against a blacks mans (like ever), this, I supposed is for demonstrate the common ability of the policeman of Hollywood. however the acting of the "hero", friends, and no friends are terrible (excepting the terrorist), are over acted, and forced. But the worst thing i found in this movie was, overcoat,the weak plot, that not has nothing of complexity, the scarcity effects that doesn't complement the poor story and the comic mustache of Nick Harper makes of this movie something to see before to the bed, or if you are so tired.

Seen worse

[Bantam · 6/10 · 14 July 2004]

The movie starts out pretty well, or so it seems. Well, the plot unravels quickly and we learn that Nick Harper, who's looking for his missing sister, stumbles even more quickly into the underworld of Barcelona.

Aside from the weak and predictable plot we do have some decent acting, the characters are well within the bounds of such a movie; considering both genre and budget. Unfortunately, there is no character development and the archetypes are too overbearing. We got the good cop (who leashes out in the name of good), the bad guys who are too cool for their own good and of course the hot Spanish female sidekick. And we do have that terrorist, who's parents were killed and thus he became an avenger. All those plot strings circle around the movie in order to meet at one point.

Sometimes the actors try to act larger than life, and act too tough, too sleek, whatever you want to call it. Nick is getting on with his investigation very fast and all seems to fall into place quite neatly. And even though he is a total stranger to Spain, he makes good pace. Sadly, it does no good for the movies credibility.

One thing I liked about the movie was the lack of Hollywood-style stunts, it looked almost "real", when we see a jump, or a fight; a brawl you would witness at your local bar. Nice going. I did not really care for the terrorist undertone, as we did see too many movies with that theme already.

All in all an okay movie, with no real twists or turns. No unexpected side effects, pretty straight forward. Something you wanna watch before going to bed, light and easy.

Great!

[kempershot · 10/10 · 8 May 2005]

I loved this movie! Eric Balfour is SO hot in it. If you enjoy Eric Balfour then you will enjoy this movie. I bought it, I've seen it a million times. No matter how low the budget it turned out great! It has a lot of action and drama in it. I guess it depends on if you like that type of movie or not. I would highly recommend you see it before you dis it. You should trust me. It's one of Eric's best movies. And Rick Schroder does an awesome job. No doubt about that! It is truly sad how Saleem Haddad's (Eric's character) sister and family dies. But I won't get into that. This is a great movie to either watch by yourself our with a family member. It's great either way.

if you want to see Ricky Schroder punching and shooting people - as we know you do - please check out Face of Terror.

[tarbosh22000 · 7/10 · 14 January 2022]

Nick Harper (Schroder) and his partner Jefferson (Hardison) are tough cops who are attempting to clean up the streets from drug dealers and hoodlums. However, Nick must take a break from doing that because he cottons on to the fact that his sister Faith (Stevens) has gone missing. She was last seen working as a model in Barcelona, so Nick flies there to get answers. As he's turning Barcelona upside down trying to find his sister, he stumbles on to a terrorist plot. There have been numerous bombings in Spain of late because a terrorist cell including the evil Saleem Haddad (Balfour). Teaming up with Ana Palacios (Galvez), they now must simultaneously keep the local cops off their back, find Faith, and stop the next bombing! Can they do it? Or will the beautiful face of Barcelona become the ugly FACE OF TERROR?

We all wanted it, and now we got it: Ricky Schroder as an action star! Sorry, Rick Schroder. Indeed, this is a performance worthy of a Rick and not a Ricky, because he has a mustache, his voice is gruffer than usual, he bosses people around, and he beats up and shoots baddies as well. It's the Rick Schroder we've all been waiting years to see! Regardless of his past, Schroder has screen presence and it's enjoyable to watch him. He should have done more tough-guy roles like this. But we are thankful he did this one.

Much like how TIG went to Poland in Beyond Forgiveness (1994), Schroder goes to Spain here with Face of Terror. It all plays out like a much more sane version of Gunblast Vodka (2000) - a cop goes to a foreign European city and more or less has to infiltrate the world of modeling. Of course, Gotz Otto is nowhere in sight but that's okay because we've got Rick. I know we make this comparison a lot, but in this case it is really apt - Face of Terror has a similar plot to Taken (2008), and of course it predated Taken by four years. DTV movies are always ahead of the curve. We say that often as well.

Kadeem Hardison's role was mostly on the phone and fairly thankless. Rachael Stevens as the missing sister was only in two other movies and is something of a mystery. All the other cast members acquit themselves well, and the Spanish locations are picturesque. The whole thing is shot clearly, bright, and well. You never miss a chase or Ricky Schroder beating up Eurotrash photographers.

In the early 00's, director Bryan Goeres was on a roll. Starting with the underrated and hugely enjoyable Phase IV (2002), he then made Face of Terror and Art Heist in the same year (2004), then did Crusader (2005). This time around, he wisely chose unorthodox actors for the roles - Rick Schroder as a fish-out-of-water cop in Spain and Eric Balfour as an Islamic terrorist - and he kept the pace snappy. Consequently, Face of Terror has a lot of positives and a lot to recommend it.

So, if you want to see Ricky Schroder punching and shooting people - as we know you do - please check out Face of Terror.

Spain looks like Spain

[n8717 · 7/10 · 7 May 2011]

As someone already said the plot is quite predictable and the characters are not too realistic. The acting is fine. The kind of movie you enjoy on TV and easily forget. That sounds like a 5, so, why did I give it a 7?

Because of something that is extremely hard to see in a movie directed by an American director. Something we, spaniards, appreciate. It's as simple as the title says: Spain looks quite like Spain. When you're used to see Spain in movies as some sort of mix between Mexico, Spain in the 50's and random stuff* it's nice to see a movie where, even if some of the character and scenes are not too credible, Spain does not look like a grotesque parody of itself.

*By random stuff I mean like when in Mission Impossible (don't remember which one (2?)) they mixed at random different traditions from different parts of Spain. (Quite as if the movie said "Los Angeles", and you had the Statue of Liberty, the Chicago Bulls, New Orleans Mardi Gras, the Bellagio casino and the Grand Canyon all at the same time.

So, the movie itself is more like a 5-6, but it had a +1-2 for that.

Face of Terror

[nicx-1 · 10/10 · 3 May 2005]

I thought this movie had a great plot to it. The action scenes were great and the fighting looked real. Some of the acting was a little off but for the most part it was good. Eric Balfour was awesome in it he was pretty bad a**, as Saleem Haddad!!! Rick Shroeder was pretty good too but I thought that they would have cast Balfour for the main role, his acting ability is a lot better!!! It also has an awesome European vibe to it, a little reminiscent of The Talented Mr. Rippley. I really did enjoy this one if your looking for a good action movie that's a little different then go for this one. Don't listen to other reviews, if you read the plot and your interested by it just watch it, don't let someone else's opinion sway you.