Snake Eyes pretty much craps out. During a heavyweight boxing match a government official is assassinated literally right in front of, Rick Santoro, the police detective assigned to protect him. As Santoro, a sleazy cop long involved in small time graft, begins to investigate the murder mystery he soon has to decide whether he is willing to give up what little decency he has left or continue to pursue the truth even if it literally costs him everything.
Snake Eyes is billed as a mystery even though it�s pretty obvious not long into the film as to who are the bad guys. I did enjoy director Brian DePalma�s use of multi angled and juxtaposed images along with flashbacks to tell the story from different characters perspectives, but while these techniques were impressive they were not enough to save the film. And for me personally the worst thing about Snake Eyes is that its ending was a complete and total downer that left me disappointed with the entire movie. Nicholas Cage does an excellent job, playing the character of Santoro with wide-open relish, but the rest of the cast seemed to have a hard time making their characters believable. Given that this included such talented actors as Gary Sinise I feel sure this lack of believability was due more to the inconsistent writing of the characters then the performances given by the actors.
Basically I�d say if you�re a fan of Nicholas Cage it might be worth gambling on Snake Eyes, but otherwise I�d give it a pass.
Average Grade: C
