An assassination attempt thrusts a detective into a murder case with 14000 potential suspects and a deadly conspiracy where nothing is what it appears to be. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/17/2005 Starring: Nicolas Cage Gary Sinise Run time: 98 minutes Rating: R Director: Biran De Palma
Brian De Palma's 1998 thriller is largely an exercise in airing out his orchestral, oversized visual style (think of his Blowout, Body Double, or Raising Cain) for the heck of it. The far-fetched story features Nicolas Cage as a crooked police detective attending a championship boxing match at which the Secretary of Defense is assassinated. The unfortunate Secretary's right-hand man (Gary Sinise) happens to be Cage's old friend, a fact that complicates the cop's efforts to reconstruct the crime from conflicting accounts--a directorial strategy bearing similarities to Kurosawa's Rashomon. The outrageousness of the scenario essentially gives De Palma permission to construct a baroque cathedral of spectacular camera stunts, which (he well knows) are inevitably more interesting than the hoary conspiracy plot. (The opening scene alone, which runs on for a number of minutes and consists of one, unbroken shot that moves in from the street, following Cage up and down stairs, and in and out of rooms until finally ending ringside at the match, is breathtaking.) The shifting points of view--based on the contradictory statements of witnesses--also give De Palma license to get creative with camera angles and scene rearrangements. The script bogs down in the third act, but De Palma is just revving up for a big, operatic finish that is absolutely gratuitous but undeniably impressive. Yes, it's style over substance in Snake Eyes, but what style we're talking about.--Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
I Agree The Ending Was Weak But Overall It's An Entertaining Movie:
Most people didn't like this movie, from what I have heard and read over the years. However, I found this a very fast-moving, involving story with Nicholas Cage playing an extremely interesting person: "Rick Santoro," a guy who acts like a complete crazy man at the beginning but slowly gets it together as the film goes on. Gary Sinise plays his normal corrupt role. (This was before his good-guy CSI: New York days.) Brian DePalma directed this, so you know it's going to be stylishly shot, too, a bit... more info
Unfortunately Something Has to Happen:
The first thirty minutes are great. You get your money's worth from Brian De Palma in the form of a bravura continuous shot of the various backstage movers at an Atlantic City prizefight. It's the perfect fusion of layered exposition and sheer style. You also get your money's worth from Nicholas Cage playing to the rafters as a slimeball cop in a bright yellow shirt. The opening sequence ends with a political assassination, and clues to the killers' identity emerge in multiple flashbacks that cover the same... more info
Had So Much Potential And In The End It All Gets Ruined:
Brian De Palma has always been one of my favorite directors; he has an extraordinary way to bring his ideas to screen. Like his other films he brings in the awesome camera angles that are of course his trademark. But here the angles seem useless, they are well brought out and at times a bit overused but definitely pointless. The film story which is a bit far-fetched commences with a police detective attending a championship boxing match (played by Nicolas Cage). In the match we witness from many... more info
De Palma is a genius with the camera!!!,:
It's more mystery, who-dun-it type thriller, where you have to figure out who did what from the "clues" given throughout the film. Although this was more the type of movie where they didn't actually give you any visible clues, they just showed the scene again from another point of view later on, so the audience would go, ohh, I get it now... that's what really happened... "Snake Eyes" stars Nicolas Cage as Atlantic City cop Rick Santoro. Now Rick is the kind of guy who'll take a few bucks from you and... more info
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