THANKS HEAVENS FOR EBAY. (Snake Eyes (DVD))

Member Name: thingywhatsit

Product:	Snake Eyes (DVD)
Date:	10/10/05 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None.

Disadvantages: Loud and uninteresting.

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 the noise of the film is unecessarily loud, it's characters oversized in the vocal department, and that the plot is extremely weak. From the combination of writer and director, David Koepp and Brian de Palma, I would strongly advise de Palma to carry on doing what he is good at, i.e. Directing, and David Koepp to go back to the drawing board.

The story leads us to believe that a loudmouthed character protrayed a little more like a thug than a cop by a desperate Nicolas Cage battles demons of loyalty with a friendship that goes back to childhood with his counter player, Gary Sinise, whose acting in this particular story is more articulate than Cages although unconvincingly predictable.

Hype is entered into the story when a political assassination takes place, apparently planned in advance for reasons that seem weak and more than a little exaggerated. Taking place at the time of a boxing match, the only really convincing acting was the knock out itself.

Touchstone and Paramount are big names in the film business and it disappoints me that this script even reached their offices, let alone tempted Nicolas Cage, or indeed the Director of this film, Brian de Palma, which comes off as disappointing compared with his other epic direction of films like Mission Impossible and The Untouchables.

Of course, there has to be a woman in the story in an attempt to make the film creditworthy, and here, the subject was trying hard to keep what was otherwise a bad plot on line. Cage's interaction with Carla Gugino was harsh and unrealistic, and in fact the intereaction between the players in this film is daunting, in that each seems to be shouting their lines, rather than interacting with each other.

The cover goes on to give us a description of "Riveting Mystery and heartstopping excitement", although here, I felt that the description was not only untrue, but that there was more riveting mystery and heartstopping excitement in Harry Potter !! Murky, dismal and loud would have been a better description, although who would have been conned out of their tenner for the film with a realistic description.

Running Time : 94 minutes too long.
Rating : 15 although I believe the film to be more harmful to a childs ears and development of imagination than having adult content.
Soundtrack : Drowned by actors attempts at being louder than one another.
Made in 1998 (produced on DVD in 1999) this film be probably best left in the last century.

DVD Quality : Disappointingly murky dark scenes, although I think this was the film rather than the DVD.

DVD Extras : Chapter Search Index although I did not find this much use.

Sound Quality : Excellent though I wish it were not in this instance because of the noisiness of the film

English Language only although there was an interesting subtitle availability for those who are hard of hearing.

Cover design : Better than the film itself.

Dolby Digital, Dolby Surround 2.00

Colour : PAL widescreen format 2.35.1

dual layer format giving warning that layer transition may trigger a slight pause although in my case it did not.

For me; sorry. Unconvincing, disappointing and now available on ebay at 99p !

Rachel

Summary: Not worth the money