Snake Eyes (English)

A shady Atlantic City cop is invited by his friend (a former Navy commander, now a security officer who must keep an eye on a VIP) to a heavy weight title fight in the local Arena.

The film is best known for the opening scène, a steadycam shot starting outside Atlantic City Arena, sneaking its way through corridors, tunnels, stairs and elevators, ending at ringside. And then, all of a sudden all things happen at once: People screaming, the Champ is down, a series of gunshots, two people with superficial flesh wounds, and the VIP mortally wounded.

That’s over 12 minutes of vintage De Palma, and the rest of the movie isn’t bad either, but can’t live up to the expectations created by this opening scene. At least not entirely. It’s a whodunit (or whathappened) developing in whirlpool style, with split-screen, multiple ending flashbacks and several unexpected twists and turns. There’s even a camera (inside the building!) hovering over hotel rooms filled with guests, who are doing all things they won’t ever do at home.

Technical wizard De Palma is very close to his best form here, but his show-off style tends to get in the way of the story a little. He’s also let-down by Nic Ray’s flamboyant acting style. Ray was clearly asked to act like this – a hectic movie asked for a hectic performance – but his yelling, screaming and running around works only for a while, then quickly becomes irritating. A great Gary Sinisi and an incredibly sexy Carla Cugino (as a myopic suspect) help a lot.

Biggest problem is probably not Cage’s performance, but his character: In the original plans the shady Atlantic City cop was a black man (played by Will Smith). One of the pivotal elements of the plot, is about a heavyweight champion who sold his title (and therefore his virtue and self-respect) for money. While being confronted with him, the shady black cop would look into a mirror, and see his own corrupt face being reflected in the face of the man in front of him. But Will Smith left the project and was replaced by Nic Cage …

But, as said, this is not a bad movie, it’s a good one that will certainly hold your attention to the very end. There’s also a great scene with Cage being beaten up by a heavyweight champ. Luckily (for him) Mike Tyson was asked for The Hangover, not this one.

Nederlandstalige review van deze film: hier

Aanraders in overeenkomstige genres, volgens Boobytrap:
- La Femme Infidèle (The Unfaithful Wife) (thriller / drama : 8)
- Que la bête meure (thriller / drama : 8)
- Desu nôto (Death Note) (thriller / fantasy : 7.5)
- Obsession (thriller / romantiek : 7.5)
- Schemer (thriller : 7.5)

Hoe beoordeelt Boobytrap categorie thriller eigenlijk? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10