Terrific Brian De Palma thriller covers familiar territory for the director; political assassination, conspiracies, dirty cops, females in disguise, suspense set pieces, split screens, POV shots, long tracking shots, and so on and so forth. However, I'm a sucker for De Palma's style and although he's pretty much mining his previous work, it's still far better made than most other directors, creating terrific suspense and doing it with terrific visual flair. David Koepp, who wrote De Palma's last great film, "Carlito's Way," wrote this film based upon a story by he and De Palma. The story has shady Atlantic City police detective Nicholas Cage trying to figure out who's behind the murder of a politician at a heavyweight boxing championship that's taking place in the middle of a hurricane. Is it the head of security, Gary Sinise, the sleazy promoter, John Heard, the femme fatale, the terrific and criminally underused Carla Gugino, or maybe even the champ, Stan Shaw? Everyone has something to hide. It's a fun rogues gallery of characters in a serpentine plot, but it's really De Palma's directorial flourishes, the best of which is as a wildly long open shot. You also get Luis Guzmán, Kevin Dunn, and Mike Starr in supporting roles, so it's hard to see how this film can go far wrong. Although it's no "Blow Out," it's a must see for De Palma fans!

I think that the strong point of this film is the direction. Maybe the story is predictable, little original and so on... but it is undeniable Brian De Palma's job on camera movements and on the style is extraordinary. Do we want to talk about the - fake - long take at the beginning, that lasts more than 10 minutes, in which the whole meaning of the film is included? Moreover, I've seen much worse performances by Nicholas Cage.

Another good film for Nicolas Cage is the 1968 production of "Snake Eyes". It is directed by Brian De Palma. And it is written by Brian De Palma and David Koepp. The cast includes Nicolas Cage, Gary Sinise, John Heard, Carla Gugino, Stan Shaw, Kevin Dunn, Michael Rispoli, Joel Fabiani, Luis Guzman, David Anthony Higgins, Mike Starr, Tamara Tunie, Chip Zen, Michaella Bassey, Paul Joseph Bernardo, Jemard Burks, Mark Camacho, and Desmond Campbell, Jean-Paul Chartrand, Chip Chupka, Deano Clavet, Tara Ann Culp, Kelly Deadmon, Frederick De Grandpre, Adam C. Flores, George Foumiotis, Christina Fulton, Kenneth Glegg, Sebastien Delome, Alain Goudern and Dean Hagopian. The story is that of an Atlantic City cop who solves an international espionage ring during a major hurricane. I gave it 8 stars for it frenetic pace and intrigue. Dale Haufrect

Protagonist Rick Santoro is a cop in Atlantic City; he is not a hero; he takes bribes and shakes down crooks rather than arrest them. His friend Commander Kevin Dunne is almost his opposite; an upstanding naval officer who is in town leading the security detail of the Defence Secretary. Dunne is keen for everything to go well as his boss watches a boxing match… unfortunately it doesn't while Dunne is investigating a suspicious redhead shots ring out and the Secretary goes down. A second shot clips the woman next to him and as she flees Santoro sees that her blonde hair was a wig. Dunne shoots the assassin but he knows he messed up however Santoro assures him he can spin it so he looks good.At first it looks like a single terrorist is behind the crime but the investigation quickly suggests otherwise; the shooter fired just after the favourite hit the canvas in what TV footages shows was a dive. We soon learn that he was approached by the redhead and another member of the crowd shouted his cue to dive… clearly there was a conspiracy. It looked as though this was going to be a mystery but forty minutes in we learn who the chief bad guy is at it isn't much longer before we learn the wounded girl was in fact a target as she was blowing the whistle on company giving falsified data to win a defence contract. The question is will Santoro save her and expose the corruption or will he live up to his reputation and take the easy option.This is a solid thriller; not a classic but worth watching on television or picking up if you see it in the bargain bin. The story gets off to a good start and sets up an interesting mystery… it is just a shame that the bad guy was exposed so soon; it would have been better if we'd learnt his identity at the same time as Santoro. The action is well handled even if things get a bit cliché towards the end. Nicolas Cage is delightfully over the top as Santoro and Gary Sinise is solid as his friend Dunne. Carla Gugino looks good as the female lead although her character is sadly underused. Overall an entertaining way to pass an hour and a half.