Snake Eyes

(Paramount)

This Brian De Palma film has detective Rick Santoro (Nicolas Cage) helping out with security at a championship boxing match in Atlantic City -- but when the defending champ goes down, so does the Secretary of Defense, and he doesn't get up. As in De Palma's far more accomplished Blow Out, what starts out as a simple mystery becomes a critique of perception. De Palma's visuals find him at the top of his witty form; when it comes to plot and character, however, Snake Eyes lives up to its name.