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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. **

Snake Eyes is not very original as a premise, yet the material feels engaging and fresh as it unfolds on the screen. It is also well shot, well edited, and while the story is kind of silly, it never gets too convoluted and it says linear and focused. It's not a great movie, but as it stands, it makes a pretty fun thriller.

It is fight night in Altantic City, and the Secretary of Defence is attending. Unfortunately for him (and the nation I supposed) he is gunned down in the middle of the match. Panic erupts, and the police lock down the arena, leaving fourteen thousand possible suspects and/or eye witnesses inside. It is up to detective Rick Santoro to gets some answers.

If I am gonna make any complains about the film, it would be the following two. Nicholas Cage (as usual) over-acts BIG TIME!!! I MEAN HE REALLY OVER DOES HIS PERFORMANCE!!!!!!! WHAT THE HECK??!!! ............excuse me. I also find the Climactic finale a bit over directed. Any who knows movies, knows that Brian de Palma likes to stage his adrenaline like an opera, with bold assertive scoring, and slow motion, plus an emphasis on physical acting. Sometimes it feels right, sometimes not. One thing he always gets right though, is his integration of a long sweeping shot. Snake Eyes begins with one, and it takes up most of the first scene in fact, that's pretty good.

Snake Eyes despite its flaws is crafted skillfully enough to sustain a viewer for a hundred minutes. It is not a film that needs to be seen but it is a good one to watch if you catch it on the box one night.

I love the awesome camera angles in the same take at different scenes within the movie throughout the boxing match. It feels so professional and some of the scenes are also tracking shots or long takes, but other cameras in the same scene are in close up later and with split screen editing. There's also this awesome camera angle panning as an overhead shot through apartment rooms in another sequence. The payoff of who the lead villian organizing the shootout in the audience is a little underwhelming and the ending credits linger on an outdoor location throughout for no need, but this is mostly so cool and gripping.

A movie with excellent plot twists combined with outstanding camera work.

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.