Snake Eyes (1998)

Brian De Palma attempting a Rashomon style thriller centered around the murder of the Secretary of Defense at a Las Vegas boxing match, at first glance, seems like a premise with promise. Although I hold my hands up in admitting that I believe (despite his merited aura) De Palma can be hit or miss, naturally I approach every of his films with an open mind.

I make that point here because the critical response to Snake Eyes is dreadful.

Nicholas Cage is Rick Santoro, a corrupt cop who is in Vegas to attend a boxing match and meet his best friend since childhood (Gary Sinise) who is escorting the Defense Secretary to the fight. After the Secretary is assassinated during the fight, Rick has to join the dots and figure out what exactly is going on, and Snake Eyes' short lived run time is set entirely over one night; mercifully as it turns out.

Cage's performance is half decent half dreadful, with the opening half hour or seeing him at his over the top, irritating worst. Once the murder takes place, he thankfully tones it down somewhat as he begins to investigate, with different players in the drama all taking their part in helping or hindering him.

A big problem for Snake Eyes is that Rashomon is just as slight in terms of run time; not only that, it keeps you gripped through its proceedings. De Palma's film reveals the bad guy fairly early on, and it's so obvious you spend the rest of the film waiting for some sort of further twist. When none is forthcoming, you almost wished you'd spent your time watching Pete Travis' Vantage Point (2008), a perfectly entertaining Rashomon effect thriller that is a far more enjoyable romp than De Palma's increasingly dreary thriller.

Although Snake Eyes isn't dreadful, it's enormously disappointing, and Cage especially is disproportionately guff at a time when his star was arguably shining its brightest, a mere three years on from his Oscar winning performance in Leaving Las Vegas (1995). For De Palma, this is an enormous step down from the thrilling Mission: Impossible (1996), a film that he conceivably hasn't got near since. 4.9/10