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SNAKE EYES Send This Review to a Friend
Brian De Palma is expert at creating visual excitement. In his thriller SNAKE EYES, set in an Atlantic City hotel and casino, a Secretary of Defense is assassinated in the midst of a boxing match and Nicolas Cage is the local detective who by circumstance is the one who must unravel the crime on the spot. Gary Sinese plays his long-time friend, now the military officer in charge. Throw in a mystery woman who saw what happened, and the ingredients are there for a plot that, as most of these sort of stories do, stretches credulity.
But De Palma directs with such panache that watching the spectacle is its own reward. The camera moves with fury and the editing and the setups accentuate the impact. Add Nicolas Cage's sometimes frenetic, sometimes stoic performance as a corrupt cop who still has a sense of honor left and this is a thriller to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, the script by David Koepp asks us to accept too much, and by the time the film climaxes, one feels disappointment even though the very end is far from conventional.
Amid the spate of action films pouring from Hollywood, this at least has directing skill that makes it more interesting to watch--for a while. A Paramount Pictures release.
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