Snake Eyes

Cage is a slick, crooked (and flamboyant) Atlantic City cop with dreams of making it to the big time. While attending a highly publicized boxing match with friend and Naval officer Sinise, he finds himself in the midst of a conspiracy after an important political figure is assassinated, and for the first time he decides to try and complete his job in honest fashion. Stylish but disappointing thriller begins with nifty camera work and has the makings of something really special, but once you get past all the fancy tricks there's really nothing left to hold your interest. Even worse, the film clearly suffers from some last minute edits. **

This is a wonderful experience. Never mind that the acting is poor and the story weak --that was never the point. This film was made because DePalma knows how to make his camera dance and wanted to make a film based on that notion.

A central question in most art concerns the role of the viewer. This dominated easel painting, then was the center of evolution of the novel and now sits at the core of thought about film. Is the viewer an omniscient God, or can the viewer be fooled like a person? Is the viewer a passive observer, or does she `walk' with the participants as an invisible character? So many clever questions.

DePalma thinks the camera is a whole new thing, The camera is a type of character, part narrator, part actor, part god. It can lie, be fooled, search curiously, document, play jokes. So this is a film about the camera's eyes. `Snake' both because the camera can snake around following Cage, going places that Cage cannot, but also `snake' because the camera sees with forked tongue.

So we have one seemingly continuous shot of the key scene, which is played first from Cage's perspective, then the fighter's, the Navy guy, the Girl, then the cop again, and finally the `flying eye.' Along the way, every eye trick DePalma can think of is woven in:

--The girl's glasses are crushed so she sees less than the audience

--The whole mess is about what a satellite sees

--The casino has 1000 cameras which our own eyes coopt

--The thing is framed by the TV eye

--God-like, we scan over several hotel rooms while Cage and Sinese are stuck in the hallway maze

--Splitscreen simultaneity

--The whole thing is in real time, as if you were living in the action

This is masterfully intellectual. See it. Forget the story.

1. Is Rick the only cop in Atlantic City?

2. Where did all of the FBI agents go?

3. Did the fat guy get killed in his hotel room?

4. How come those two soldiers who were killed couldn't be trusted but the other dozen people who were involved in the conspiracy could be?

5. Does the Secretary of Defense have final say in regards to how all money in the defense budget will be spent?

6. How did the place clear out so fast of 20,000 fight fans when no one was being allowed out of the building? Were Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio there?

7. Do casinos really have 1000 cameras?

8. How come Rick was the only one who could figure out that the champ took a dive when it was clear as day on the videotape? Didn't they watch it on ESPN's Sportcenter?

9. What were those things that looked like missles doing in the basement of a casino in New Jersey?

10. What were Cage, DePalma and the scriptwriter thinking?

Brian DePlama is a great director. The opening shot was amazing and Nicolas Cage played his part to the hilt. I can live without Gary Sinise, he's very stiff and he played his "Ransom" character all over again. Carla Gugino is a terrible actress. At first, I dealt with it. Nicolas Cage had enough acting ability to cover everyone else. But when the whole tidal wave thing (pointless), and that extremely awful ending, not even the greatest multi-Oscar winner can save it. This is the worst kind of bad film, where it starts off great and ends very dismal. One of the year's most disappointing.

Whether you are a fan of Cage, De Palma, Sinise or pulpy vintage thrillers, "Snake Eyes" has some goodies to offer. The guys are having all kinds of good fun, going about movie's biggest flaw, a plot that wants to be grounded, suspenseful, gritty, but loses plausibility and momentum the deeper we go. If You can turn a bit of a blind eye to that, welcome to Cage's world.

Brian De Palma has made Nicolas Cage into the admirably positive minded, flamboyant, deeply flawed hero Ricky Santoro, a hotshot police detective with the amount of energy only Nic can provide. The story takes place on one night during a boxing match taking place at Atlantic City Casino, which Ricky attends together with his friend and naval officer Kevin Dunne (Gary Sinise). Little did Ricky know, a massive criminal conspiracy is about to manifest itself with the murder of an important political figure right in the middle of the fight. Ricky, naturally, decides to uncover the mystery on his own and his own way.

"Snake Eyes" start enigmatically, beautifully, with the camera spinning up a 20 minute continuous dance, making first introductions and yet unknown connections between the variety of characters we'll see later on. Straight away it's more than apparent that fans of Cage like myself are in for a treat. Overacting it may be, I don't feel privileged enough to tell given the amusing character of Ricky, but take away Nicolas from the equation and, trust me, it looks worse now. A character like Santoro fits his energetic and amusing nature. As he's flowing around and interacting with an entertaining cast of familiar faces and good performances (Carla Gugino, Luis Guzman, Stan Shaw, Kevin Dunne), solving all kinds of little, pulpy, episodic, amusing problems, the bigger, more boring conspiracy is also uncovering. When the big cat's out of the bag, which is like half-way through the film, that's where "Snake Eyes" become slower, less exciting and a lot more predictable, or in other words, disappointing. The first half is a decent pulp dime novella, and the second an uninspired chase thriller.

Multiple perceptions of a singular event, relationships between them, and the audience, is what "Snake Eyes" is mostly about, and I wonder what would've come out of it with a richer story and a less lackluster ending. De Palmas relentless visual style, paired with Cage's unique charms and the lively, saturated setting of a huge event in an arena, provides enjoyable jolts of pulpy melodrama. But when all the tricks are played, we are left with a movie too typical to ascend above others... Visually, the intro sequence is not the only impressive part, so those aspects endure, despite some other minor technical flaws (or bad ideas), like almost cartoon-like swooshing sounds during the boxing scenes.

"Snake Eyes" is not a great movie, but I do have a good amount of appreciation for it, particularly Palma's direction and, you know, Cage for the win! As a mystery/thriller of the 90's, it should please the seekers of such flicks. As for Cage fans, assemble, it will please. My rating: 6/10.