A shady police detective (Nicolas Cage) finds himself in the middle of a murder conspiracy at an important boxing match in an Atlantic City casino.
Unfortunately, the DVD I watched had the picture stretched out funny. The film was widescreen, but two wide and not tall enough. I suppose I could have fixed that by adjusting my TV settings, but I was generally disappointed in the presentation. I will not hold that against the film, though -- just saying it needs a better release.
Some of the De Palma traits are here: there is a bit of surveillance (not quite his regular voyeurism theme, but not far removed) and a little bit of split screen. These aspects really mark it as his work even if nothing else does.
Having Nicolas Cage as the lead was a gamble. He can be amazing or dreadful, and you never know what you are going to get. Here he runs the whole range -- in some scenes he is pretty good and in others pretty awful. The overall strength or weakness of the film seems to fall on Cage, and this may be why it falters at times.
Unfortunately, the DVD I watched had the picture stretched out funny. The film was widescreen, but two wide and not tall enough. I suppose I could have fixed that by adjusting my TV settings, but I was generally disappointed in the presentation. I will not hold that against the film, though -- just saying it needs a better release.
Some of the De Palma traits are here: there is a bit of surveillance (not quite his regular voyeurism theme, but not far removed) and a little bit of split screen. These aspects really mark it as his work even if nothing else does.
Having Nicolas Cage as the lead was a gamble. He can be amazing or dreadful, and you never know what you are going to get. Here he runs the whole range -- in some scenes he is pretty good and in others pretty awful. The overall strength or weakness of the film seems to fall on Cage, and this may be why it falters at times.