Day 56 -- Snake Eyes

Released: August 7th, 1998

Starring: Nicholas Cage, Gary Sinise, John Heard, Carla Gugino

Writer/Director: David Koepp/Brian De Palma

Description: A shady police detective finds himself in the middle of a murder conspiracy at an important boxing match in an Atlantic City casino.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

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I would like to revise my statement from the last review and say that Cage's turn as Det. Rick Santoro is the perfect Nick Cage role. He gets to freak out a lot, while being the sleaziest cop on the planet, or better known as an Atlantic City Police detective. He plays the comedy as well as the drama, but sometimes it's harder to know which to laugh at.

"Snake Eyes" is a conspiracy/action movie set in a soon to close arena on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Santoro's friend, Lieutenant Dan...err, Commander Kevin Dunne (Sinise), has concocted a mass conspiracy to ensure the passage of a missile defense program, which includes killing the Secretary Charles Kirkland. The movie plays out like a typical piece together mystery movie, even though some things are way more obvious than the movie wants them to be. Even the most naive audience member could tell that Dunne's story was bullshit, and therefore knew he was involved.

Sinise's performance of the villain was one of the better roles that he is not remembered for, but he does a great job of going from honorable to evil with very reasonable choices. Even when Cage does his flamboyant act in the first act of the movie, Sinise is very cool and collected. His character believes what he's fighting for, which in theory isn't the worst thing in the world: protecting soldiers. But it's the fact that he is backed by a greedy casino owner that makes his acts deplorable, and the murdering of a government official.

Dunne's second target is played by the beautiful, Carla Gugino, who only has one scene of impact. She reveals the conspiracy to Santoro, even though he really has no reason to believe her. She somehow convinces him and he decides to protect her. Gugino is alright in the film, she doesn't have much screen time, but she does succeed in not botching the explanation dialogue. She, like most other things in the movie, is mediocre.

The story in the film is very late 90s, or pre-9/11. There is no way that a dignitary like the Secretary of Defense would only be guarded by a Naval Commander at a public event. And to be more nitpicky, there's no way that the concession area would be that clear of people so that they could pull this off. I know dissecting a fictional conspiracy movie is overkill, but sometime the lack of attention to detail kills me. One that annoys me to no end is how the "winning boxer" is still celebrating in the ring even after the shots have been fired. Honestly, how does 1) the director, or the script supervisor (am I wrong?), miss this, and 2) the editor not leave it on the cutting room floor. This much more amateur than your average continuity issue.

"Snake Eyes" was a noble attempt at a government conspiracy movie. The writing is fine for the genre, but the story itself is very boring. It feels like one of those ideas that looks great in the writer's room, but when it comes to creating a script, no one can quite figure it out. It's the movie version of "The George Wendt Show".

Rating: 5/10 -- Average is about the best way to describe it. It is top three on the ridiculous Cage performances list, and should be seen just for that.