Snake Eyes

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, But Unoriginal
Review: This movie was so pointless and ordinary that I finished watching it just fifteen minutes ago, and I've already begun to forget its plot. Frankly, I was expecting much more from this movie. I figured that when you have a great director, an Academy Award winner, and an Academy Award nominee working together on a movie, it might be worth watching. For this particular movie, I was wrong.

This movie takes place in Atlantic City, where there is a big boxing match at which the Secretary of Defense of the United States is in attendance. He's assassinated as the match commences, and at first this murder seems like a textbook case of a political fanatic who kills a politician in order to raise awareness about his cause, but soon the plot thickens. Nicholas Cage plays the detective in charge of uncovering this plot, and Gary Sinise is his friend and fellow law enforcement official who is really the brains behind the assassination. The rest of the movie involves some hackneyed cat and mouse scenes, but nothing incredibly memorable.

There are two very talented actors in this movie, and they weren't able to display their talents here. This type of movie is really too simplistic for actors of this caliber. The truth is that you'll be entertained for the duration of the movie, but if you're looking for something that's Oscar worthy, this isn't it.

Rating:
Summary: Snake Eyes DVD
Review: I revisited this movie on DVD, to again watch this thriller that has "meat on the bone." The quality of the widescreen DVD is excellent. The only disappointment, is that other than the movie's trailer, there are no additional bonus features. Alas!

However, despite the lack of extras, this is one satisfying movie. The camera work is breathtaking, and at the core of the movie is a problem: What happens when a corrupt cop, Atlantic City Detective Nick Santoro (Cage), reaches a point where he has to make a high stakes ethical decision? The smart money says he'll sell out, pocket his take, and move on. As this movie shows on many levels, where the smart money is, is not always the place to place your bet. Counterbalanced against taking the money and running, is the grating concept that he (Santoro) was used, like a pawn, by his erstwhile "best friend" Lt. Cmdr, Dunn (USN), played icy-cold by Gary Sinese. Full of surprises, and hi-tech toys, this 98-minute movie presents a problem for its protagonist, and his decision is the key: Should he do the easy thing or the right thing? The result is excellent cinema and another bravura performance by Nicholas Cage.

Rating:
Summary: great film, needs a special edition though
Review: Great film, good cast, but it was the lack of special features that disapointed me. All it has was the original theatrical trailer.

Rating:
Summary: Moderately good De Palma movie
Review: Brian De Palma is one of our most visual directors. In fact, he's obsessed by vision. He believes that the truth of what we see is always a combination of several people's observations. One individual either doesn't see all of an event, or his mind plays tricks on him. He showed this to us in a taunt thriller called Blow Out in the 1980s. In Snake Eyes he returns to the subject.

Nicholas Cage plays Detective Ricky Santoro, a likable but corrupt Atlantic City cop. He appears to think that being on the take is just part of the job. Otherwise, he is a pretty decent guy. He has his loyalties and his limits.

Most of the movie takes place inside a large old arena on the Boardwalk during a hurricane. A major boxing match is taking place, the last event before the arena is torn down. Ricky is there at the invitation of his old friend Kevin [Gary Sinise], a Naval officer there to protect one of the patrons, the Secretary of Defense.

The fight begins. Various characters appear, while others disappear for a while. Then shots ring out. The Secretary is shot, and a mysterious woman talking to him is wounded. She gets out of the auditorium during the ensuing melee, but the exits are sealed before she can escape.

This attempted assassination takes place very quickly, and now Ricky must try to piece together the event through various eyewitnesses. Who was where and when? Who is telling the truth? This takes up much of the movie, and when the truth comes out, it turns into a suspenseful cat and mouse game. The result is a fairly good movie.

De Palma uses many of his trademark shots, which involve complex camera moves. The best is one which begins in a hotel hallway, then moves up and travels over several of the hotel's rooms, as we look down into them, like flying peeping toms.

There is a lot of talent here. Nicholas Cage won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1996, and has parlayed that into four hit movies in three years. Gary Sinise is not only an Oscar winner, but also received an Emmy for his portrayal of Harry S. Truman. In Snake Eyes they give fine performances, but the material is a piece of cake for them.

...While certainly an entertaining effort, Snake Eyes suggests that currently the director excels in projects which he did not conceive. ...

Rating:
Summary: A very complex film -- much more than it's given credit.
Review: The editorial review here by the Amazon guy (Keough?) is totally off the mark. He missed out on the entire point of Sinise purposefully plotting the crime where he did and not "coincidentally" with his friend. Forget all the dazzling camera work and just focus on the two main characters. Sinise's motivation is one of the more compelling that I have seen in ANY movie villain, and not easy to dismiss. To the film's credit it never marginalizes him, and winds up making some pretty serious statements about how we view loyalty. Cage's character and his relationship with Sinise really brings this out. Quite simply, a brilliant script. The only thing I would say is a bit hokey is the outfits of the ladies. But really, that just kind of makes it fun. Gorgeous Ryuiki Sakamoto score. This movie is not about DePalma flexing his technical muscles. It's one of the best American films in decades.

Rating:
Summary: Snake Eyes DVD
Review: I revisited this movie on DVD, to again watch this thriller that has "meat on the bone." The quality of the widescreen DVD is excellent. The only disappointment, is that other than the movie's trailer, there are no additional bonus features. Alas!

However, despite the lack of extras, this is one satisfying movie. The camera work is breathtaking, and at the core of the movie is a problem: What happens when a corrupt cop, Atlantic City Detective Nick Santoro (Cage), reaches a point where he has to make a high stakes ethical decision? The smart money says he'll sell out, pocket his take, and move on. As this movie shows on many levels, where the smart money is, is not always the place to place your bet. Counterbalanced against taking the money and running, is the grating concept that he (Santoro) was used, like a pawn, by his erstwhile "best friend" Lt. Cmdr, Dunn (USN), played icy-cold by Gary Sinese. Full of surprises, and hi-tech toys, this 98-minute movie presents a problem for its protagonist, and his decision is the key: Should he do the easy thing or the right thing? The result is excellent cinema and another bravura performance by Nicholas Cage.

Rating:
Summary: A very complex film -- much more than it's given credit.
Review: The editorial review here by the Amazon guy (Keough?) is totally off the mark. He missed out on the entire point of Sinise purposefully plotting the crime where he did and not "coincidentally" with his friend. Forget all the dazzling camera work and just focus on the two main characters. Sinise's motivation is one of the more compelling that I have seen in ANY movie villain, and not easy to dismiss. To the film's credit it never marginalizes him, and winds up making some pretty serious statements about how we view loyalty. Cage's character and his relationship with Sinise really brings this out. Quite simply, a brilliant script. The only thing I would say is a bit hokey is the outfits of the ladies. But really, that just kind of makes it fun. Gorgeous Ryuiki Sakamoto score. This movie is not about DePalma flexing his technical muscles. It's one of the best American films in decades.

Rating:
Summary: snake eyes, you crapped out
Review: this was a nice Brian DePalma flick and it had its ups and downs in the middle and I read the book and the ending of the book is better than the ending of the movie because in the ending of the book Gary Sinise's character gets squashed by a big globe thing and in the movie he shoots himself. Cage is just plain crazy people and I like that about him. though the let down is the fight scenes with Stan Shaw and that other boxer.

Rating:
Summary: Great Thriller!
Review: While the plot of the movie sounds terribly cliche, it couldn't be more farther from the truth. The middle and ending will make your hair stand on end. If you want a great thriller or you are a Cage fan, get this. I highly recommend this.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great...
Review: Brian DePalma's technically-impressive but far-fetched action thriller is one of the director's less convincing films, concerning itself more on frenetic camera tehcs than sensical plotting and story. However despite the critical flogging the film got when it was released, it is visually astounding, especially in the famous 20-minute opener, with a continous steadicam shot without any cuts. The conspiracy cover-up ("hush, hush, wink, wink) story isn't that good, but the pairing of Nicholas Cage and Gary Sinise helps the film's credibility. Especially Cage, who does the Castor Troy eccentic weirdo shtick from FACE OFF. And extra kudos goes for not doing the tired Hollywood ending, but going for a more downbeat finale. It does hold its own against other covert thrillers, but considering that DePalma's last effort was the excellent MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, this could have been a lot better. Same goes for DVD extras too.