Brian De Palma

Nice cast can't overcome predictable story about corrupt cop Cage and best friend Sinise in the aftermath of the assassination of the Secretary of Defense at an Atlantic City fight. Just too slick, although the location is great. Cage starts off unhinged but actually becomes more normal as the film goes along. As for Sinise, well, let's just say the plot doesn't do him any favors as he has to portray a character we've seen a million times. If you want to see Cage as a bad cop, watch Bad show more Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. That defies convention at every turn and Cage is riveting. This film needed Werner Herzog--not Brian De Palma, who seems to only understand the surface element of films, and rarely makes one that has any real heart or soul. show less

Smothers is an unlikely leading man in one of the stupidest films I have ever watched. It's all due to the script, which presents a bizarre series of incidents and seems to feel that bizzare alone = funny, which in this case it certainly doesn't. The cast is really stellar, with Allen Garfield, for instance, given a chance to be quirkly and bizarre--but not funny--the script just won't achieve that. Smothers leaves an important corporate position to become a tap-dancing magician after show more graduating from a school run by Orson Welles, whose performance reflects the idea that neither he nor anyone else knows what the hell is going on here. Smothers' boss, John Astin, tries to get him to come back because Smothers was doing pretty much all the work at the office. As always, Astin is interesting, but although he has a lot to do in the script, none of it is funny. They could at least have had him stand on his head! There are some nice shots of Greyhound Scenicruisers and other buses during Smothers' road gigs, where he meets the beautiful Ross, who must have also wondered how she ended up in this film. Other than the highly recognizable cast, the best thing the film has going for it are some of the settings and set decoration. Smothers' apartment, a long series of room with no doors is particularly interesting. Writer Jordan Crittendon didn't do much else, although surprisingly he did write four episodes of the great Soap TV series, so I guess his career wasn't a total waste. show less

a 1980s classic. Sometimes Pacino's acting feels a bit over the top but it's still a pretty bloody great movie even though I can't imagine myself dealing the life of a drug dealer and dealing with the danger that comes with it.

When I finished the book, all I could say, and I actually said it out loud, was, “Well, that was just stupid.” Mostly, I was referring to the ending, but maybe it really was the whole book. The casualness of the narrative was strange. I don't remember the last time I've seen numbers NOT spelled out. And the last bunch of chapters felt like scenes more than anything else. I don't have a problem with different characters in a story bumping into each other, but the last one with Elizabeth show more was just too far-fetched to be believed. Heck, Elizabeth's whole story arch was a stretch!
On the positive side, it's a really, REALLY quick read!

SPOILER ALERT: There are no snakes in this book. show less