The bent copper hands over a bloody $100 bill. "I didn't want this one," says the shifty bookie. "Why?," retorts the crooked cop. "There's a blood all over it," he moans. "Whoa, aren't you delicate."
It's Cage again, this time in action-mode as a bent, two-timing Atlantic City cop. Donned in gear reminiscent of his Wild At Heart days, Cage's Rick (not that name again) Santoro is invited by his boyhood friend, Navy Commander Kevin Dunne (Gary Sinese), to a front row seat at a championship fight where Dunne is in charge of security for the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
It's a windy night in Atlantic City with Hurricane Jezebel whipping around. However, the real trouble is brewing inside (sorry, sounds clichéd, but wait until you see the film), where defending heavyweight boxer Lincoln Tyler (Stan Shaw) is being pounded in the ring. Just as the bug guy hits the canvas the crack of bullets rings out and you've guest it, The Secretary of Defense is shot through the throat. Panic ensues and Rick, of course, is left to piece the assassination together.
In lesser hands than Brian De Palma, this would be an exceedingly mediocre picture. However, the flamboyant director applies a box full of stylish tricks - cross-cutting splitscreen, point-of-view flashbacks, unreliable narration and an overhead, traveling cam that pans from room-to-room, unimpeded by walls - to keep the viewer interested. He also audaciously relates the assassination (along with the events leading up to it) from four points-of-view.
Subsequently, the film is never less than visually impressive, but like De Palma's previous feature Mission Impossible, its characters are not sufficiently fleshed out and the ending is simply dreadful. So awful, in fact, it almost completely ruins the entire film.
However, the acting is uniformly good, especially Sinese, without ever being particularly memorable. As for the plot? Well, there's an hour and a half's worth of well-fashioned, conspiracy-themed entertainment involving the statutory array of politicians, TV reporters and military goons. However, the ending is weaker than my left hook.
Ben Walsh
It's Cage again, this time in action-mode as a bent, two-timing Atlantic City cop. Donned in gear reminiscent of his Wild At Heart days, Cage's Rick (not that name again) Santoro is invited by his boyhood friend, Navy Commander Kevin Dunne (Gary Sinese), to a front row seat at a championship fight where Dunne is in charge of security for the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
It's a windy night in Atlantic City with Hurricane Jezebel whipping around. However, the real trouble is brewing inside (sorry, sounds clichéd, but wait until you see the film), where defending heavyweight boxer Lincoln Tyler (Stan Shaw) is being pounded in the ring. Just as the bug guy hits the canvas the crack of bullets rings out and you've guest it, The Secretary of Defense is shot through the throat. Panic ensues and Rick, of course, is left to piece the assassination together.
In lesser hands than Brian De Palma, this would be an exceedingly mediocre picture. However, the flamboyant director applies a box full of stylish tricks - cross-cutting splitscreen, point-of-view flashbacks, unreliable narration and an overhead, traveling cam that pans from room-to-room, unimpeded by walls - to keep the viewer interested. He also audaciously relates the assassination (along with the events leading up to it) from four points-of-view.
Subsequently, the film is never less than visually impressive, but like De Palma's previous feature Mission Impossible, its characters are not sufficiently fleshed out and the ending is simply dreadful. So awful, in fact, it almost completely ruins the entire film.
However, the acting is uniformly good, especially Sinese, without ever being particularly memorable. As for the plot? Well, there's an hour and a half's worth of well-fashioned, conspiracy-themed entertainment involving the statutory array of politicians, TV reporters and military goons. However, the ending is weaker than my left hook.
Ben Walsh