of
Defense at a heavyweight title fight. He has even invited his old
buddy from the neighborhood in Atlantic City Detective Rick Santoro (Nicholas
Cage) to take the fight in at ringside. Now the bad cop (Santoro)
and the good guy (Major Dunne) are thrust into the middle of a murder mystery
and they are in a rush to find out who is behind things.
Snake Eyes tells us to watch
everything because what we see, may not be what exists. So we watch
the beginning of the film intently, trying to pick up every detail so that
we can figure everything out. From Rick Santoro
acting like a true jerk to both the good guys and the bad, to Major Dunne
ironing out every little detail of the security for this very important
fight. All we, as the viewer, want to figure out is what is going
on. After showing us the setup, Snake Eyes races around with
follow up details before showing us this main scene multiple times more.
Can you figure it out? Who is behind the matter at hand? And,
Why?
Unfortunately, Snake Eyes
is a disappointing film with so much potential. It has a great star,
a great director, and a decent plot to build off of. Snake Eyes,
however, just never matures into the film we are looking for. Nicholas
Cage seems to be in one of his worst roles that I can imagine as Det. Rick 
Santoro.
He just is out of his element and we can not feel any emotion towards his
character that exists. All we do is watch him do bad things, and
that does nothing to show us inside his characters mind. And I am
a Nic Cage fan, but it just seems like this role doesn't let Cage be Cage.
Gary Sinise is also a personal favorite of mine, but he too seemed out
of place in this film. It just reminded me a lot of the Jason Patric
character in Speed 2, a character with a lot of potential but who
seemed real stiff and out of place in the film.
Probably the most inept part of
the film is the fact that I think that the story is a good one. I
think it sets the premise for a really intriguing film. However,
I felt that it just reveals too much, too quickly. It doesn't give
us a chance to develop thoughts about how things are going. It doesn't
twist and turn as much as we expect from and intriguing mystery film. 
DePalma
is a great director but unfortunately it didn't feel like he handled it
as well as we have come to expect. I had such high hopes for this
film, I was hoping it would be this year's late summer The Game.
But alas, I was wrong in hoping for that. The film isn't awful, but
it is a lot poorer than I would have expected.
Snake Eyes is ok, and it should do ok theatrically the first week. However, I would have to say save your pennies on this one. Your time can be much better sent out there both theatrically or on video. All of the names on this picture (Cage, Sinise, DePalma) have much better examples of their film efforts. Go check out those other films, and please don't judge these great talents on this film alone..
Grade: C
Parents
Guide: R rated for a number of reasons. Mainly
violence, language, and some adult situations. Parental guidance
is definitely recommended so parents, especially those with kids 14 and
under may want to view first.