Snake Eyes (DVD)

I’ve been an admirer of Nicholas Cage’s work for quite a while and feel that during the mid to late 90’s he seemed to be doing his best work. In 98 Cage linked up with director Brian De Palma to create a film revolving around one night in Atlantic City. While the critics and casual movie goers wrote off this film I was still keen to see it purely because Cage is one of my favourite actors. I don’t normally listen to critic reviews anyway and that was certainly the case with this. Cage stars as an Atlantic City cop, Rick Santoro, who seems to know how to have a good time. On this particular night he’s managed to score a ticket to the big championship boxing ...  Read the complete review

Brian de Palma’s Snake Eyes is a movie which you are going to love for 90% of its running time and then suddenly hate with a vengeance. Its one of those slicky filmed, slicky acted movies which has a fairly obvious plot but is ultimately highly entertaining until the dreaded deus ex machina ending kicks in and ruins everything which has come before. The ending here makes no bloody sense whatsoever, comes completely out of the blue and completely wrecks what is otherwise an entertaining affair. I have to admit that I only watched this because Nicholas Cage was in the title role. I hadn’t been much of a fan of his until around two years ago when a ...  Read the complete review

Snake Eyes, on paper, sounds like a good film. Directed by Brian De Palma (Carrie, Mission Impossible), written by David Koepp (Spider-Man, Panic Room), and starring the heavyweight acting combination of Nicholas Cage (Face/Off) and Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump). How then, does it all go so wrong? Well mainly, because the plot isn't up to much. Cage plays a somewhat crooked cop, Rick Santoro, who is at a casino-held boxing match when a government official of some sort is assassinated. Oh and there's a completely pointless hurricane going on outside. Looking at this event from multiple perspectives and speaking to witnesses who were there (obviously), he tries to ...  Read the complete review

On the outside cover of this DVD was the promise of good entertainment, and they quoted Nicolas Cage as Academy Award Winning although what I failed to read after that was that his awards were for other films. I like Nicolas Cage. His work is usually consistently good, though with this film, I think the poor man must have been in need of money to take on such a weak script that actually gave away its ending within the first half an hour of viewing. The significance of the name is a little obscure, and as you plough your way through scenario after scenario of loud script reading that sounds more like a rehearsal than the real thing, you may, like me, find that ...  Read the complete review

If I had to ever compile a list of my top ten film actors there would be a place for Nicholas Cage in my top ten. However while in this film his performance is good his place in my top ten would not be on the actual merits of this film, which, as thrillers go is pretty average. This 1998 film has Brian De Palma stamped all over it as he was director, producer and along with David Koep wrote the story (not sure if he also made the costumes). Unfortunately it does not live up to his other great works such as the Untouchables or Mission Impossible. The movie is set entirely around a world title-boxing event at the Millennium Casino Atlanta. This is an ...  Read the complete review