Ojos de serpiente

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.

Most people didn't like this movie, from what I have heard and read over the years. Some of my friends who saw it didn't like it either. For some reason, I did, and that was despite a few things I normally don't put up with (too much usages of the Lord's name in vain and the usual anti-military agenda.)

However, I found this a very fast-moving, involving story with Nicholas Cage playing an extremely interesting person: "Rick Santoro," a guy who acts like a complete crazy man at the beginning but slowly gets it together as the film goes on. Gary Sinise plays his normal corrupt role (this was before his CSI: New York days) and Carla Gugino was very easy on my eyes.

Brian DePalma directed this, so you know it's going to be stylishly shot, too. This looks really, really good on the recently-released Blu-Ray.

All the characters are interesting, actually. One complaint I agree with: the ending was a bit weak and detracts from the story. It's a rough film but edgy and interesting. Don't be discouraged reading a lot of negative reviews about this. It's good entertainment.

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?

I saw this film for the first time the other day, and I was blown away! Not only is the story mysterious and compelling, but the techniques De Palma uses are amazing!

The first 12 and a half minutes is one big shot! That's incredible! And the split-screen sequence is very welcome, simply because the split-screen isn't used enough any more. As my brother, who watched the film with me, said, "The split-screen hasn't been used effectively since Wood-Stock!" I Agree with him. What a great film.

That being said, it isn't De Palma's best. That would probably be The Untouchables.

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. **