I saw Snake Eyes (1998) at the cinema when I was a teenager and enjoyed it then. Over time my love for it has grown alongside my appreciation for both Nicolas Cage as an actor and Brian De Palma as a filmmaker, and I truly think it’s an underrated collaboration. While in contrast to De Palma’s earlier classic paranoid thriller Blow Out, this film might seem a bit like a cartoon, it still dazzles with its showmanship: the lengthy opening ‘one take’ shot following dirty cop Rick Santoro (Cage), the Rashomon repetition of what happened at the championship boxing match when an assassination goes down, the overhead journey across all the hotel rooms, the god’s eye nature of the chaotic climax, etc. i love it all, particularly De Palma riding high on the box office success of Mission Impossible and going full bells and whistles with the Hollywood train set. Cage also gets to do his thing, shifting from over the top showboating to intense investigation and finally to resigned heroism in the face of defeat, all of which is gifted with high emotion by Ryuichi Sakamoto’s gorgeous score. Carla Gugino is also stellar as the target of the crossfire conspiracy. Gary Sinise is good, though it might have been more interesting for that character to be a trusted charismatic friend rather than a clipped, precise soldier from the get go. Great character actors in support including Kevin Dunn, Luis Guzman, Michael Rispoli, Mike Starr, Tamara Tunie and Stan Shaw. Love the lengthy closing credit shot (not so much a fan of the song). Recommended.
VHS Tracking 