Snake Eyes (1998)
Directed by Brian De Palma
All bets are off when shady homicide cop Rick Santoro witnesses a murder during a boxing match. Determined to solve the crime, he quickly learns that his search for answers will only uncover yet more questions in an ever-widening web of conspiracy, intrigue, and danger.
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What critics compared Snake Eyes to
The obvious inspiration for this uneven suspense-thriller is Hitchcock's 1948 thriller "Rope," which used a series of 10-minute-plus takes to convey a sense of real-time action.
The scene was reminiscent of shots we remember seeing in DePalma's Snake Eyes and Speilberg's Minority Report - but longer and deadlier.
Inside a dark, dirty chateau in some dark, dirty stretch of Paris, the camera observes from on high the first floor of the building, and goes berserk, at first suggestive of De Palma’s stately, deliberate speed of a God’s-eye shot in so many of his movies, such as “Snake Eyes” and “Femme Fatale,” but with the glib glide of a robot, as if from the flick of a wrist from a mechanical controller.
The result is one of the most beautifully directed bad movies I've seen since the immortal Brian De Palma trifecta of Snake Eyes, Mission to Mars and Femme Fatale (known unofficially as De Palma's Trilogy of Awesome Awfulness).
We also have Prince (Joey King, of The Kissing Booth 2 ), a British assassin posing as a schoolgirl who has manipulated Japanese assassin Kimura (Andrew Koji, of Snake Eyes ) to board the same train in hopes of getting him to kill The White Death once they get to Kyoto.
If that wasn’t enough there’s also Prince, Joey King (“The Kissing Booth 3”, “Welcome to the Blumhouse”), a young woman who has her own plans that involve using Kimura, Andrew Koji (“Snake Eyes”, “Peaky Blinders (TV)”), to help kill White Death, Michael Shannon (“Night’s End”, “Knives Out”).
Jer, na aktovku s "novcem od ucjene" tipuje i sve samo ne bezazlena djevojka zvana Princ (Joey King; "Princeza"), njoj je zbog nečeg osobnog na tragu Otac (Andrew Koji; "Snake Eyes"), plus u vlaku se, iz osvetničkih i inih pobuda, nalaze i ubojice živopisnih imena kao što su Vuk (Bad Bunny; "Brzi i žestoki 9") i Stršljen (Zazie Beetz; "Joker").
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…movies that use Rashomon-style storytelling from The Usual Suspects to Snake Eyes, Elephant and Vantage Point…
But just as De Palma crashed and burned after 45 minutes of near-genius in 1998's "Snake Eyes," the writer-director's Big Twist in this film rips so many holes in the plot that after all the cerebral stimulation, it may be hard to not feel let down by the finale.
Femme Fatale is a nifty bit of self-plagiarism from Brian De Palma, back in giddy good form after the wretched Snake Eyes and the downright middling Mission to Mars, in which he quit cribbing from Alfred Hitchcock just long enough to send Stanley Kubrick spinning in his grave.
Although De Palma has tried his hand at various genres - sometimes with success ("The Untouchables," "Carrie") and sometimes without it ("Snake Eyes," "Mission To Mars") - it's the erotic thriller that could be his personal Siren.
Yes, there are a few failures along the way (" Snake Eyes ," "Mission to Mars," " The Bonfire of the Vanities "), but look at the range here, and reflect that these movies contain treasure for those who admire the craft as well as the story, who sense the glee with which De Palma manipulates images and characters for the simple joy of being good at it.
De Palma made a series of derivative but richly entertaining noirs in the '70s and early '80s -- "Obsession," "Dressed to Kill," "Blow Out" -- and "Femme Fatale," arriving in the wake of two stinkers, "Snake Eyes" and "Mission to Mars," is an optimistic return to that vein.
The result is better entertainment than the more conventionally plotted bombast that's preoccupied De Palma for the last decade or so, including "Mission: Impossible," "Snake Eyes" and "Mission to Mars."
In place of authenticity, the film’s déjà vu gangsterism amounts to a crime nerd’s fantasy — minus the horror that DePalma brought to the Hoffa legend in Snake Eyes , which reflected contemporary political skulduggery.
When Cris realizes he's about to be pulled from the 21 table, he makes haste (in a surprisingly well choreographed bit that recalls the opening of the Atlantic City-set "Snake Eyes") to cash out his chips, but it is his misfortune to witness a double murder holdup at the counter before it happens.
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Cinematographer Matthew Libatique ("Requiem for a Dream," "The Fountain") showcases the dance as beautifully as Nina's inner world without being caught in one of the film's many, many reflective surfaces and Andrew Weisblum ("Snake Eyes," "The Wrestler") edits with the horrific effect in mind.
Unlike Hitchcock, however, who mined poetry and pulp from the likes of Patricia Highsmith and Cornell Woolrich, Fincher has generally worked with rotten writers, including Panic Room's David Koepp, whose robust career -- from Jurassic Park to Snake Eyes -- remains one of Hollywood's ongoing mysteries.
But if Koepp's script is good on structure, it is, as is often the case (as co-writer on "Jurassic Park," "Snake Eyes" and "Death Becomes Her"), on less secure ground with dialogue and characterization, which hampers Foster's attempts to make Meg Altman a completely realized individual.
Because of Foster?s appearance in the starring role, a screenplay by David Koepp (Snake Eyes), and David Fincher?s (Seven, Fight Club ) direction, I thought Panic Room would live up to these expectations.