SNAKE EYES
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Gary Sinise, Carla Gugino Directed by: Brian DePalma MPAA Cert: R (UK equivalent: 15)
Review by Andy Phillips (aphillips@ma.man.ac.uk)
**1/2 out of ***** (Mediocre)
SNAKE EYES, the latest thriller from director Brian DePalma, centres around a high-profile heavyweight boxing match. Corrupt cop Nick Santoro (Cage) has been invited by best mate Commander Kevin Dunne (Sinise), who also happens to be in charge of security. With a hurricane raging around the hotel where the fight is being staged, things turn nasty when the US secretary of defence attending the fight is assassinated. Santoro is placed in charge of investigating the shooting, and uncovers all the usual conspiracy-type dodgy goings on in the process. There are many moments in the movie where the relatively good direction can do little to hide the deficiencies in the screenplay, notably one sequence showing birds eye views of the rooms in the hotel. With a better script, this could easily have set up a suspenseful scene, but here it seems to have little purpose other than to fill up a few more seconds. Even the terrifically done opening, a twenty minute continuous steadicam shot, is lost amidst near unintelligable dialogue. Nick Santoro's seeming inability to anything other than to go around yelling quickly becomes irritating. One scene in particular, where he confronts one of the boxers (Stan Shaw) over match rigging, degenerates into nothing more than a contest to see who can shout the loudest. Occasionally, there are flashes of inspiration that do just about enough to keep the viewer interested. The eyewitnesses' different views of events leading up to the shooting, told in flashback, are more than competently handled and work well. Another fault that keeps the excellent premise from becoming the bookend to an equally good thriller is the premature unveiling of the villain. Although the enormous lack of potential suspects make the revelation more than a little obvious, the suspense completely evaporates afterwards, leaving us with inferior cat-and-mouse antics supported by an unimmersive soundtrack. The ending is a seriously silly anticlimax, strongly supporting theories that it was very different from what DePalma had in mind. The movie, like so many thrillers, is also riddled with plot holes obvious even to viewers of average intelligence -- spectators returning to a normal life moments after witnessing a cold-blooded act of supposed terrorism, nobody seeming to notice one of the witnesses' blood covered clothing -- to name but a few. Despite its shortfalls, SNAKE EYES isn't the worst film of its type you'll ever see, and may entertain some people, though it might be best to wait for the video.
Rating Legend:
0 Abysmal * Bad ** Watchable *** Quite Good **** Very Good ***** Masterpiece
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