Nicholas Cage goes full Cage and turns it up to 11 for every scene in Brian De Palma’s conspiracy thriller, Snake Eyes.

Packed with an incredibly recognizable cast, which includes Gary Sinise, Carla Gugino, John Heard, Stan Shaw, Kevin Dunn, and Luis Guzman, the film never quite hooks you in, because Cage goes so BIG through the entire movie.

It’s Fight Night in Atlantic City, and despite the approach of a hurricane, everyone seems to be turning out for this title bout. That includes corrupt cop, Rick Santoro (Cage), who has been offered ring side seats along side his childhood friend, Kevin Dunne, who is working special security for a member of government.

But you can’t trust anything you see, or hear. With visual distractions aplenty, the official is assassinated, and the arena is locked down. Dunne and Santoro investigate, but there are secrets, twists, turns, and a witness, Julia (Gugino), who may not be sure about what she saw.

There are some nice technical moments throughout the film, including a rather lengthy steadicam opening, which is made to look like all one shot. The film plays with perception, and perspective, and the truth is buried in there somewhere.

Cage is so extreme in this one as to almost approach laughable. He’s big, loud, and larger than life. In every scene. It gets a little tiring as a viewer, and makes it hard to invest in the characters, no matter how intriguing the thriller may be.

Through it all Cage seems to be in a different film from everyone else. Sinise has that stoic way of delivering his lines, and Gugino has a quiet dignity about her, even when soaked in blood, but none of it withstands Cage’s scene chewing.

As the story plays out, we get glimpses of other perspectives, and are able to put it together, some of us faster than Santoro, who towards the middle of the film is playing catch-up.

It’s not horrible, per se. And it’s interesting to see the way De Palma organizes, frames and makes his shots, but it just doesn’t work as well as it could have. There was a real possibility here. De Palma, for the longest time was the master of the thriller, following in Hitchcock’s footsteps, but a casting mis-choice didn’t do the film any services.

I like the idea, I like most of the execution, the reveal aren’t really much of a surprise (simply from casting), but instead of getting swept up in the story, I just want to go along and soak in Cage’s over-the-top performance.

Because it’s FIGHT NIGHT!