Brian De Palma's Snake Eyes (1998) is rolling just that with most film critics. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun Times concludes that "it's the worst kind of bad film: the kind that gets you all worked up and then lets you down, instead of just being lousy from the first shot." Kenneth Turan in today's Los Angeles Times calls it "cartoonish entertainment that ... exists purely as a vehicle for De Palma to show off the wizardly camera work that is his passion." (The film features a 20-minute, continuously shot opening that tracks star Nicolas Cage as he walks through an Atlantic City hotel casino; virtually every critics praises it.) Stephen Holden in the New York Times uses similar words as he describes "the preposterous plot of this cartoonish pop fable." Glenn Whipp in the Los Angeles Daily News says that the film is typically De Palma: "With the signature visuals and the innovative camera work come the usual excesses." More than that, writes Desmond Ryan in the Philadelphia Inquirer, DePalma's "technical flash only exposes the weak spine of Snake Eyes." Rita Kempley in the Washington Post calls the film "glittery but dunderheaded, " designed to give De Palma and Cage "a chance to strut and preen." Rod Dreher in the New York Post writes that Cage "craps out in Snake Eyes, a dreadful suspense thriller." But Andy Seiler in USA Today suggests that filmgoers ought to judge the film on its own merits as "a deliriously cynical mystery thriller." However, he warns, "If you want plausibility and substance, save your money." And Eleanor Ringel in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution concludes, "Snake Eyes is a lot like a night at a casino. By the end, you know the wins and losses don't really add up, but you've had such a good time it doesn't really matter."

If midweek grosses are any barometer of the weekend box office, then Halloween: H20 (1998) should give Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998) its first serious competition. The seventh Halloween film earned $5.1 million on its opening day, compared with only $3 million for the 13th day of Ryan. In an interview with today's Los Angeles Daily News, Robert Bucksbaum of the Reel Source movie tracking service forecast that the Jamie Lee Curtis slasher movie would earn $22 million.

Bruce Willis has told BBC's Radio 1 that he is "fed up" with action films. Willis, whose latest movie, Armageddon, premiered in London Wednesday night, did little to promote it in the radio interview, at one point saying of the action genre in general: "It's so much more fun to make fun of it than it is to actually do it any more. I'm frankly sick of it." He added that he is planning to veer in a different direction this year. "The next 3 or 4 films will be without guns, " he said. "There's only so many times you can run down the street with a gun in your hand and have it feel unique. I don't really feel like I break any new ground."

A copy of John Lennon's Double Fantasy album signed by Lennon for Mark David Chapman only hours before Chapman murdered Lennon is being offered for sale by Moments in Time, the company that markets framed autographs and celebrity photographs. Gary Zimet, president of the Washingtonville, NY company said that the anonymous owner of the album had found the record near the guard booth outside Lennon's Dakota apartment house in Manhattan after the killing and had turned it over to police. "You can see Chapman's airbrushed fingerprint, and the back of the album has the detective's signature who took it in as evidence, " Zimet told Thursday's Toronto Sun.

News that Nick Leeson who is serving a prison term in Singapore in connection with his role in the crash of the Barings merchant bank in 1995, is seriously ill with colon cancer produced conflicting reports about how a planned film about him may be affected. Reuters reported Thursday that the $17-million Rogue Trader (1998), being produced by Granada Films, "could be delayed or the script altered" as a result. But the U.K. Press Association wire service quoted a Granada spokesman as saying that the revelations about Leeson's health will cause no delay and that there are no plans to alter the film (which stars Ewan McGregor as Leeson).

Geraldo Rivera was attracting new controversy Thursday following his disclosure two nights earlier on CNBC that he had learned from "one source very close to the president" that a private lab, performing a test on the dress that Monica Lewinsky had turned over to Kenneth Starr's investigators, had confirmed that "it's positive, meaning there is human genetic material on the dress." NBC immediately sent out a warning to its reporters that it "has not confirmed and will not report the information about test results from Rivera Live." The apparent conflict between Rivera and NBC News higher-ups seemed to intensify late in the day as it was revealed that Rivera had complained about his treatment by some members of the news division in an interview to be published this weekend in TV Guide. "I'm acutely aware that in the nine months I've worked for NBC News, there have been no promos for my show that have run during the NBC Nightly News, " Rivera griped. He blamed anchor Tom Brokaw for his treatment, accusing him of instituting a "bizarre" form of censorship. Rivera also suggested that he may have his eye on the top anchor job himself. "I'm in the running for the center chair at the desk of the wise men, " he remarked, presumably referring to Brokaw's seat.

Twentieth television abruptly canceled Magic Johnson's late-night talk show Thursday after receiving notices from a number of stations carrying it that they intended to downgrade its time period. Rick Jacobson president of the division, told today's (Friday) Los Angeles Times that the cancellation would mean a loss "in the millions of dollars." However, he added, "this was not a financial decision. ... If the stations would have left us in our time periods and given us a chance to grow, then we would have continued." Program staffers said that they had not had an inkling that the axe would fall so swiftly -- after barely two months on the air. In a statement, Johnson said, "We were improving every day, but this is television and shows are canceled all the time for one reason or another." Johnson was scheduled to appear today (Friday) on Howard Stern's radio show.

Following CNN's Operation Tailwind fiasco, ratings for the cable news channel dropped in July to an average of 593, 000 in primetime from 680, 000 during the same month a year ago, according to the current issue of Business Week, which cited figures from Nielsen Research. At the same time rival MSNBC increased its household viewership 144 percent to 134, 000 from 55, 000, the magazine observed. Erik Sorenson MSNBC's general manager, insisted, however, that his network had not suddenly pounced on CNN because of the Tailwind debacle. "If anyone was smelling blood, " Sorenson told Business Week, "it was being smelled before Tailwind cropped up."

ABC has decided to pair its two most notable -- and highest paid -- female anchors on the new Sunday-night edition of 20/20. Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer will host the program, with Walters also co-hosting, with Hugh Downs the Friday night 20/20 and Sawyer co-hosting, with Sam Donaldson the Wednesday version of the program. Asked by today's (Friday) New York Daily News what went into the decision to pair Walters and Sawyer, ABC News chief David Westin replied, "They genuinely like each other, they genuinely respect each other's work. They are very different people. They have different areas they specialize in. Diane does more investigative work, Barbara does more big interviews."

Chicago minister Michael Pfleger, who led the protest in Chicago that resulted briefly in the deletion of onstage fights from the Jerry Springer talk show, said Thursday that he plans to lead a demonstration at the headquarters of Barry Diller's Studios USA at the Universal lot in Hollywood. Pfleger says that although Studios USA, the program's syndicator, had promised to eliminate physical violence on the show, it has allowed it to return following a drop in ratings. Said Pfleger in a statement: "They have chosen money and ratings over integrity and values, so we are going to the offices of Studios USA to protest and demand that they stop the violence."

Meanwhile, the apparent toning down of the Springer show has helped boost sales of the video, Jerry Springer: Too Hot for TV, with direct-response sales now topping more than one million units, Garvie McNab, International Sales Manager for distributors Real Entertainment, has told today's (Friday) Calgary Sun. McNab said that two more Springer videos, Bad Boys and Naughty Girls and Secrets and Surprises will be released on Aug. 18.

Famed Chicago sports announcer Jack Brickhouse who started on WGN-TV when the station first went on the air in 1948 and called Chicago Cubs games for 40 years, died Thursday following a heart attack at the age of 82. He was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 1983.