SNAKE EYES

• Starring Nicolas Cage and Gary Sinise
• Directed by Brian De Palma
• Rated R, with profanity, sex and strong violence; running time 99 minutes
• With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a 6

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(Aug. 7, 1998) -- As a training film for cinematographers, directors and actors, Snake Eyes is a winner. Brian De Palma's new thriller is a technical knockout, a tour de force of daring invention.

Just look at the opening 20 minutes: It's one long Steadicam shot, filmed without a single cut.

An Atlantic City cop (Nicolas Cage), loudly attired in a Hawaiian shirt, walks into a large casino, goes up and down two flights of stairs, enters and exits three or four small rooms, encounters maybe a half-dozen characters, and eventually takes his seat amid a crowd of thousands at a boxing match.

Then a nearby government official is assassinated.

Imagine the coordination, choreography and concentration necessary to pull off this sort of stunt.

It's not just a stunt. Those 20 minutes quickly establish the cop as a slightly crazed, high-energy guy with few moral scruples. The swirling energy of the scene draws you into his world.

The opening of Snake Eyes is so spectacular, you expect great things to come. And that's the problem: It merely sets up the film for a fall.

Despite other flashes of brilliance, De Palma ends up undermining his film with a drawn-out, mega-melodramatic ending that would seem over the top at the Metropolitan Opera.

Beyond that, Snake Eyes is cynical and cold, with a cast of unappealing characters.

Cage is a slimy operator who takes bribes and has the wrong kind of political ambitions. Gary Sinise plays a top military security officer who'll do almost anything to push a new arms policy. Stan Shaw is a heavyweight boxing champion who seems far too willing to take a dive.

Carla Gugino plays the only decent person in the film -- a munitions industry worker who tries to expose corruption.

But she's quickly pushed aside while the others fight each other for the fast dollar. When one of them has a moral epiphany, it rings hollow.

And right about then, De Palma's imagination fails him. For more than an hour, he's been a winner at the cinematic craps table. But in the last half hour, the dice turn.

Snake eyes, indeed.