I don't think the effect on the face is bad at all. I think (and since you said it probably wasn't the ideal picture for this I don't feel bad saying this), that if you used a different picture it would work better. A lot of the examples that I've seen have used darker backgrounds with this effect. Maybe because it goes with the grungy look of it. I also downloaded a Photoshop action of this from
atncentral... (they also have one for B&W)... they are the two actions by Mike Warren. Just search for "Dragan" on the page.