Snake Eyes 1998

Critics score:
40 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: [De Palma's] most flamboyant fantasy of high-flying conspiracy and corruption since Blow Out. Read more

Paul Tatara, CNN.com: The last five to 10 minutes are completely stupid and add nothing to the film. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Read more

Entertainment Weekly: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Director Brian De Palma does his stylish best to weave the patchy script into a cinematic quilt, but despite his best efforts -- and they're often formidable -- the thing just doesn't cohere. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Although De Palma doesn't always stick rigorously to each separate viewpoint, there's an undeniable finesse in the way he parcels out the exposition in increments... Read more

David Denby, New York Magazine/Vulture: I can't think of another movie that starts so brilliantly and ends so miserably as this one. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Never loses its bearings as it hovers between preposterous paranoia and a Billy-Wilder-like moral fable about a deeply flawed hero who draws a line in the sand beyond which he cannot go. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: De Palma doesn't know the meaning of the word "subtle" -- every scene in Snake Eyes uses a brash, in-your-face approach that works until the disappointing climax. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's the worst kind of bad film: the kind that gets you all worked up and then lets you down, instead of just being lousy from the first shot. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: You're never asked to invest much in the characters, and by the time you've roused yourself to care, it's too late. Read more

Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle: What might have been fascinating after a while becomes frustrating and, finally, a real slog. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: The film echoes the technical wizardry and complex plotting of De Palma's best film, Blow Out. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Wispy threads of dramatic plausibility and character involvement unravel completely by the time of the incredibly silly final reel. Read more