Snake Eyes 1998 is De Palma's attempt at restoring his Hitch spirit

  Blender Dumbass
October 04, 2025

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Watching the opening scene of Brian De Palma's 1998 film Snake Eyes makes you realize that this motherfucker is trying very hard. We have 13 minutes of Nicolas Cage running around a very crowded set. The scene is clever with its camera, giving us multiple layers of exposition in the same time. Like there could be a TV on the foreground and Cage on the background. And they seem unrelated at first, but the scene establishes most of it's plot details right in this very shot. And then the shot ends ( 13 minutes later ) at the exact moment, the script drops the "inciting incident". De Palma is really trying hard to direct the shit out this movie.

The movie is about a cop with a flaw ( Nick Cage ) being dropped into a situation, where he needs to investigate an attempted murder of some very important politician. He is helped by a military guy ( friend of Cage's character ) who failed to protect the politician. This friend is played by Gary Sinise ( who you may know from such films as Apolo 13 and Forest Gump ).

Their initial observation of the scene of the crime leads them to look for 2 ladies. A blonde wig lady with dark hair underneath, played by Carla Gugino who you may know from the Spy Kids movies as the mother of Carmen and Juni. And a red head girl played by Jayne Heitmeyer.

The whole event is being televised by a TV director character played by Kevin Dunn who doesn't play anybody's father in this movie. But you know him as Sam's father in Michael Bay's Transformers and the father character in Joe Dante's Small Soldiers ( both of which were produced by Steven Spielberg for some reason ).

The movie also has Luis Guzmán from the first 3 Paul Thomas Anderson films and the infamously terrible film The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Michael Rispoli from such classics as Matthew Vaughn's Kick Ass and Michael Bay's Pain & Gain and others.

While the direction of the film is on point, the writing is just merely clever. There isn't like a glaring plot-hole or something. And the movie is professionally written. There isn't a problem with it, so to speak. De Palma wrote the script with David Koepp, who is known as this guy big Hollywood directors call for when they have an idea and they just need a descent enough script right now. Currently in 2025 Spielberg is shooting a Koepp script, from the story Spielberg himself came up with. And earlier Steven Soderbergh made his Black Bag from a script by Koepp. Just to give you some perspective, he is the guy who wrote Jurassic Park, De Palma's first installment into Mission Impossible, Sam Raimi's 2002 film Spider-man ( with Tobey Maguire ), Spielberg's War of the Worlds, he wrote 2 of the last Indiana Jones films, David Fincher's film Panic Room and even the 2011 direct-to-video family-friendly animated film The Little Engine That Could.

The movie isn't badly written. It is well written. And it is directed masterfully. Yet for some reason by the end of it you don't feel anything at all. The film attempts to make you feel something, by ending on a sudden shift in two of the character's relationship. Basically the cop gets the girl. But their whole relationship in the entire film consists of very by the book setup ( about half way into the film ) and then a weak payoff in the end. There is like literally about 4 lines of dialogue that constitute their relationship.

When you compare that film to films De Palma was putting out in the early 80 ( like Dressed to Kill and Blow Out ) this film is kind of weak in the emotional department. Yes it has tense sequences. And some very good ironic tension. But there is no "drive" which you could see in these earlier films. As if De Palma doesn't even give a damn about the, so called "relationship". As if De Palma doesn't even believe in love.

Or as if ( based on my stupid Freudian theory ) De Palma in 1998 is still depressed from divorcing Nancy Allen 1.5 decades earlier.

Happy Hacking!!!

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  Troler c:0


Do you eat movies for breakfast?

... replies ( 1 )

  Blender Dumbass c:1



@Troler I started watching it before breakfast. But then I stopped in the middle because I was hungry. So I took some food for me to eat, and kept on watching while eating.

Reply

  Blender Dumbass c:1

... c:0

  Troler c:0


Do you eat movies for breakfast?

@Troler I started watching it before breakfast. But then I stopped in the middle because I was hungry. So I took some food for me to eat, and kept on watching while eating.

Reply