Snake Eyes, on paper, sounds like a good film. Directed by Brian De Palma (Carrie, Mission Impossible), written by David Koepp (Spider-Man, Panic Room), and starring the heavyweight acting combination of Nicholas Cage (Face/Off) and Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump). How then, does it all go so ... Read review
Brian De Palma's 1998 thriller is largely an exercise in airing out his orchestral, ... more
oversized visual style (think of hisBlowout,Body DoubleorRaising Cain) for the heck of it. The far-fetched story featuresNicolasCage as a crooked police detective atten...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Brian De Palma's 1998 thriller is largely an exercise in airing out his orchestral, ... more
oversized visual style (think of hisBlowout,Body DoubleorRaising Cain) for the heck of it. The far-fetched story featuresNicolasCage as a crooked police detective atten...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
An explosive, highly entertaining action thriller, SNAKE EYES teams hot, Academy Award ... more
winning actor Nicolas Cage (Best Actor 1995 - Leaving Las Vegas, Face/Off, City Of Angels) with big screen favourite Gary Sinise (Ransom, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13).Ca...
An explosive highly entertaining action thriller Snake Eyes teams hot Nicolas Cage with ... more
big-screen favourite Gary Sinise Cage is an Atlantic City cop who along with an arena full of spectators at a championship prize-fight is eyewitness to a poli...
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This Gi Joe snake eyes roleplay allows kids to become their favourite GI Joe ninja. The ... more
sword features lights and sounds with a secret launcher on the handle. In addition the snake eyes mask will allow him to look just the ninja and remain stealthy through battle. Age range 5 years+.
Postage & Packaging:from £4.85 Availability:refer to website
Luck is on the side of most during the incident at the Four Aces Casino and Hotel when ... more
the simmering tension between two rival biker gangs suddenly boils over into all-out violence - miraculously there are only two fatalities despite the hundreds of rounds fired on the casino floor. Called to an out-of-control crime scene - located outside Las Vegas in the legendary town of Boot Hill - forensic investigators Gil Grissom Catherine Willows Nick Stokes and Sara Sidle quickly discover that the casino shootout victims were no innocent bystanders: one was the powerful leader of the Predator gang and the other a luckless card dealer who may have borne witness to an elaborately staged execution. Meanwhile back in the glitter of Sin City CSI's Warrick Brown and Greg Sanders have their own hands full as the dark side of this desert metropolis is about to wreak havoc on the two investigators via a seemingly endless series of crimes...
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Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Advantages: Good performance from Cage, looks fantastic Disadvantages: Visual flair gets priority over a decent plot or script
Snake Eyes, on paper, sounds like a good film. Directed by Brian De Palma (Carrie, Mission Impossible), written by David Koepp (Spider-Man, Panic Room), and starring the heavyweight acting combination of Nicholas Cage (Face/Off) and Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump). How then, does it all go so wrong?
Well mainly, because the plot isn't up to much. Cage plays a somewhat crooked cop, Rick Santoro, who is at a casino-held boxing match when ... ...your enjoyment or otherwise of Snake Eyes. Besides, the film tells us who it is about 50 minutes into it, just in case we were too slow to pick it up from the start. Although revealing the identity of the "surprise" baddie halfway through is an unusual gamble, it doesn't pay off whatsoever. From this point on, there is absolutely no suspense.
The two guys are paired off as rivals, and "the baddie" starts following ... more
Snake Eyes, on paper, sounds like a good film. Directed by Brian De Palma (Carrie, Mission Impossible), written by David Koepp (Spider-Man, Panic Room), and starring the heavyweight acting combination of Nicholas Cage (Face/Off) and Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump). How then, does it all go so wrong?
Well mainly, because the plot isn't up to much. Cage plays a somewhat crooked cop, Rick Santoro, who is at a casino-held boxing match when a government official of some sort is assassinated. Oh and there's a completely pointless hurricane going on outside. Looking at this event from multiple perspectives and speaking to witnesses who were there (obviously), he tries to piece together what is going on. However, he soon discovers that a betting scam, a mysterious blonde and an old friend of his may have something to do with a government cover-up, and that more than just the police investigation is going on inside the casino.
Well at least I think that's what it's about, because this film doesn't spend too long worrying about the story, instead opting for outrageously long single takes and ultra-stylish cinematography. Whilst I admit the opening 18-minute long shot is dizzyingly impressive (even though some say it was actually 3 well edited separate shots), surely a film's priorities lie elsewhere? Apparently not according to Brian De Palma, and cue a multitude of cameras drifting over the walls of rooms to see what's happening inside, split screens and first person camera angles.
Fortunately, this film does have some stronger features, hence the 2 stars rather than 1. Nicholas Cage plays a character who is thoroughly smarmy and dislikeable (cheating on his wife) despite supposedly being the hero. However, he does give a great performance. I got the feeling that this was his natural persona; he seemed so comfortable with it. I think that Stan Shaw is also quite good as the boxer involved with throwing a fight. Unfortunately, Gary Sinise and Carla Gugino (from Spy Kids I think) aren't exactly on the top of their game.
The script is similarly uncaring about coherent plot, let alone plot development, and tries to be hip and clever (sadly failing on both counts). The baddie is just too bad, the goody isn't actually that nice, and neither of them have anything good to say, the best line probably being "Don't give me the hurt look. You don't have the face for it." Which is crap. Gugino spends the film running round looking scared and confused, and although this is quite realistic considering she's just been shot for no reason, it doesn't make for entertaining cinema.
The story, considering it's supposed to be a suspense thriller, is alarmingly deficient of twists or surprises. I'll tell you now, the identity of the villain is so glaringly obvious from the very first scenes that if I told you who it is I would not be affecting your enjoyment or otherwise of Snake Eyes. Besides, the film tells us who it is about 50 minutes into it, just in case we were too slow to pick it up from the start. Although revealing the identity of the "surprise" baddie halfway through is an unusual gamble, it doesn't pay off whatsoever. From this point on, there is absolutely no suspense.
The two guys are paired off as rivals, and "the baddie" starts following Cage around the casino. The only tension in the entire film is created when they're both trying to reach Gugino in a bedroom before each other, and it's literally a race against time. This part is quite well done. However, towards the end De Palma and Koepp decide to turn it into a kind of hostage/action movie, and it really doesn't work. The hurricane outside makes a ridiculous "saves the day" style appearance, and it's all a bit of a damp squib.
I thought the final scene is actually quite good though, as it shows what has happened to Santoro in the following months, and I was surprised to find that he got what was coming to him. It also leaves possibilities open rather than force feeding the viewer, which is good. The film itself also isn't that long, and at least it moves along briskly.
So, what to make of this film… it's hardly a knock-out. I think the best word to describe it is patchy. Some parts work, for example Cage's performance. Also, despite the flashiness being slightly overdone, it was truly a visual treat. However, other parts are really quite poor, including the most important bits (plot, script and several performances). If there is nothing else to watch on TV (like when I saw this) then watch it by all means, and you might be whisked along by the pace of it. However, I wouldn't recommend renting or buying it - there are plenty of better thrillers out there.
================================Snake Eyes is available to buy online for £5.99 from www.treedvd.com I am reviewing the film only.
Directed by: Brian De Palma Starring: Nicholas Cage, Gary Sinise, Carla Gugino, Stan Shaw, John Heard, Kevin Dunn, Luis Guzman Running Time: 98 minutes Classification: 15
Advantages: Shows a lot of promise and for 45 seems to be a good film Disadvantages: In the blink of an eye that promise seems to turn predictable and the film loses its way
...(Spiderman) writing the script for Snake Eyes, it seems odd that it can go from having so much promise to a massive disappointment. Not only does the directing, script and story really lose its way but even the special effects and continuity on screen seems to slide away in the second half of the movie. The promise died away too quickly and the promise of an excellent film becomes distinctly average.
Even the acting seems to suffer from this syndrome. ... ...too much detail.
Overall Snake Eyes is a film that promises a lot to begin with but half way through it seems to seriously loose its way. As De Palma films go it seems to be missing the usual cutting edge we've come to expect from his movies. The script reveals too much at once and for that reason the suspense is drained out in one go and the ending left me feeling very flat. If it's on TV then it's a film I could recommend watching but I'd certainly ...
Andy.mack 04.02.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Snake Eyes (DVD)
Advantages: solid performances, intriguing plot, de Palma's camerawork Disadvantages: Deus ex machina ending ruins it, typecasting, style over substance perhaps?
Brian de Palma's Snake Eyes is a movie which you are going to love for 90% of its running time and then suddenly hate with a vengeance. Its one of those slicky filmed, slicky acted movies which has a fairly obvious plot but is ultimately highly entertaining until the dreaded deus ex machina ending kicks in and ruins everything which has come before. The ending here makes no bloody sense whatsoever, comes completely out of the blue and completely ... ...be another example of that. Snake Eyes could just have easily have been a reference to the way the camera behaves in the opening section of the movie, snaking around the corridors of the building in Cage's footsteps in a sequences which runs for 20 minutes without a cut. De Palma is more than happy to introduce a variety of weird angles and cuts throughout the movie, utilising the split screen effect to show two things happening at once and showing ...
wampyrii 04.05.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Snake Eyes (DVD)
Advantages: None. Disadvantages: Loudness, and disappointment.
On the outside cover of this DVD was the promise of good entertainment, and they quoted Nicolas Cage as Academy Award Winning although what I failed to read after that was that his awards were for other films. I like Nicolas Cage. His work is usually consistently good, though with this film, I think the poor man must have been in need of money to take on such a weak script that actually gave away its ending within the first half an hour of viewing. ... ...obscure, and as you plough your way through scenario after scenario of loud script reading that sounds more like a rehearsal than the real thing, you may, like me, find that the noise of the film is unecessarily loud, it's characters oversized in the vocal department, and that the plot is extremely weak. From the combination of writer and director, David Koepp and Brian de Palma, I would strongly advise de Palma to carry on doing what he is good ...
thingywhatsit 10.10.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Snake Eyes (DVD)
Advantages: outstanding 20 minute steadicam sequence Disadvantages: fizzles out towards the end
Snake Eyes is a Brian De Palma film in many aspects. He directed it, he also produced it and he came up with the story along with David Koepp. Nic Cage stars as an Atlantic City cop who is as a big boxing match when he is witness to a political asassination. Naturally the culprit must be in the building but with an arena full of spectators it's going to be hard finding the culprit. His investigation uncovers some secrets best left untouched. The ... ...feather in De Palmas hat. Cages character is very highly wired and over the top at time. He's also cheating on his wife so basically he's a bit of a git and as a result you don't have as much respect for him. By the end it all becomes a bit silly with a big storm sequence which detracts from what could have been a tense and tightly woven film. For film buffs there is one thing worth seeing this film for. One sequence in the film runs for twenty minutes ...
utero 06.05.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Snake Eyes (DVD)
Advantages: stylish production Disadvantages: not a great deal of substance
I have not yet completed a challenge in the Ciao Café that asks for your top ten film actors but if I ever did there would be a place for Nicholas Cage in my top ten. However while in this film his performance is good his place in my top ten would not be on the actual merits o this film, which, as thrillers go is pretty average.
This 1998 film has Brian De Palma stamped all over it as he was director, producer and along with David Koep wrote the ... ...is does not live up to his other great works such as the Untouchables or Mission Impossible.
The movie is set entirely around a world title-boxing event at the Millennium Casino Atlanta. This is an interesting concept to compress the film into one area and certainly it means that there are no car chases to liven up the proceedings instead the film relies on the strength of the actors to carry the thriller. At a relatively early stage the viewer ...
atticusuk 27.05.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Snake Eyes (DVD)
Atlantic City police detective Rick Santoro is present at a boxing match when a political assassination takes place. Determined to solve the crime quickly his search for answers uncovers a widening web of conspiracy, intrigue and danger.
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINM; TECHNICOLOR DISTRIBUTION SERVICES
"...SNAKE EYES matches the opening sequence in adrenaline-pumping excitement..." (New York Times, p.E12, 07/08/1998)
"...Snake Eyes is a real pleasure to watch for its sheer risk-taking expertise..." (Sight and Sound, p.38-62, 01/11/1998)
"...Snake Eyes sports some of the most breathtaking filmmaking of De Palma's career -- and Nicolas Cage is the one actor who cannot be upstaged by it..." -- 3 out of 4 stars (USA Today, p.11E, 18/09/1998)
DVD Description
From its incredible opening tracking shot to its suspenseful finale, this Brian De Palma thriller maintains a giddy, fever pitch of cinematic style and excitement. Nicolas Cage stars as Atlantic City detective Ritchie Santoro (his explosive energy and flashy clothes mirror the tone of the film), who finds himself heading a high-level investigation after the U.S. secretary of defense is assassinated at the championship fight he's attending. Ritchie's old pal Naval Commander Kevin Dunne (Gary Sinise) was assigned to guard the secretary and now fears for his career. A mysterious beautiful woman in white (Carla Gugino) has something to do with the case but is lost amid the 14,000 spectators trapped in the sealed-off arena crime scene. Meanwhile, a raging hurricane is tearing up the boardwalk outside, and as Ritchie begins to unravel the mystery through the casino's massive camera security system, he discovers truths he'd just as soon not have known about. Taking place almost entirely within the confines of the arena and casino on a single dark and stormy night, SNAKE EYES zips along merrily, delivering loads of glitzy atmosphere and fun, Hichcock-style suspense. The appropriately Bernard Herrmann-esque music score is by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
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