ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

tomsview In his autobiography, "Wide-Eyed in Babylon", Ray Milland told about witnessing a performance by Charles Laughton while co-starring with him in "Payment Deferred".First Laughton rolled his eyes until only the whites showed. Then his lips twitched and quivered, and then he began to slobber. This went on until Milland was convinced Laughton was having an epileptic fit. Finally the director called, "Cut."Milland discreetly asked the director whether he considered what he had just witnessed to be fine acting. The director assured him that it wasn't, simply sheer self-indulgence, but that Milland shouldn't start feeling superior because he would be doing it himself if he lasted that long. The director considered it an occupational disease with most actors.This goes a long way towards explaining Nicholas Cage's performance in "Deadfall".The film is about con men, involving the same con that was the basis of "The Sting". "Deadfall", made in 1993, predates 2003's "Confidence" in 'paying homage' to that great movie. Joe Dolan, played by Michael Biehn is involved in a sting that goes wrong when he accidentally shoots and kills his father, Mike Dolan. With his dying words, Mike sends his son to find his Uncle Lou. Mike and Lou are both played by James Coburn. Lou decides to bring Joe in on a life fulfilling "long" con and teams him up with Eddie, his right-hand man. Eddie, played by Nicholas Cage, becomes stressed by Joe's presence and this leads to increasingly excessive behaviour. Cage's performance is startling. To portray Eddie's anger management issues, Cage must have felt that tantrums along the lines of a child experiencing the terrible twos would be about right. After a fight with his girlfriend, Cage lays on a bed kicking and screaming. Cage also adopted a false nose for the role as though he knew he was going to cut loose and possibly felt he needed a little anonymity. One is forced to ask if the director, Christopher Copolla, had any control over Cage at all? The answer could lie in the fact that Nicholas Cage is Christopher Copolla's brother – his little bro' in fact. Joe becomes involved in his uncle's scam. The mark is one Dr. Lyme, who has a taste for beautiful diamonds. Distractingly, the doctor wears an artificial hand that features a large pair of scissors not unlike Edward Scissorhands' in hedge trimming mode. This arresting prosthesis gives his character a cartoonish quality – just another odd element in a movie that lacks a consistent style. The scam goes down, and the movie ends with a series of twists that are too contrived to create much impact. "Deadfall" is unbalanced by some extreme characterisations, and is so derivative that there is not much originality left in the film – other than Nicholas Cage's performance that is.

edie_edu There is so much true 1940's film noir feel underlying the slightly desaturated color; the ending especially. I would go so far as to say this is a Neo-Noir film due to the weaving of twisting of the characters lunacy, namely Eddy, Played by Nicholas Cage. Richard Widmark has played some wild, out of control villains, who moved from one thought so dangerously that were hinging off of the edge of your seat and his just to see what might happen next. Cage has continued to build a wonderful collection of original characters who entertain and thrill on many levels, and this film gave him the story framework to do a little glassblowing using every color in the rainbow, into very hot glass. The production design was idiomatically very thoughtful and flowed seamlessly from one scene to the next. This picture knew the importance of the location in this noirish tale as never backdrop, but character inspiring the events and interactions. I can only think how fun it must have been to introduce characters such as Dr. Lyme into the story, something a bit James Bond fantastic, but hey, I've seen some freakish dudes in the East Bronx who did business with his, uh, cutting precision. Sarah Trigger and Michael Biehn had good chemistry, and maybe bee more flirtatious with the lens, they played so pretty I almost wanted to remind how seamy the other characters around them were. Wonderful to hear Talia Shire's beautiful voice up close, something you don't get to do too often...James Coburn turned in a stellar menacing performance, Peter Fonda, nice cameo flavor...Charlie Sheen brought the smooth and delivered it well in the most fitting red velvet smoking jacket. Smoking Jackets - Merry go Rounds - a death scene that surpasses the Coen bros wood chipper in Fargo A FRYOLATOR - I'll recover, these are the sights that will meld in a haze of twirling smoke for me. But I like to sum things up with this line from Joe in a classic Sam Spade moment, realizing the greatest con of all..."That photo was the hook that sent me deeper into the shadows, squinting for the truth". Watch it to find out! P.S. looking for more cult coverage here.

kavenga The script and the direction are just terrible. Take the scene where James Coburn is explaining the con to his gang as they sit around a card table. The camera is in the middle of the table and rotates around, panning across the faces of the crew. I think it goes around twice. Any film that makes you overtly aware of its technique is amateurish at best.Was Nicolas Cage trying to ruin the film? Did he have it in for his director cousin? What else can explain this performance from the same guy that had previously starred in Moonstruck? He's ridiculous in this.As others have said, watch it only if you want to see just how wretched a movie can be despite a superior cast. Charlie Sheen's brief appearance was the one bright spot in this turkey.

xenomorph161 I really enjoyed this movie when they played it one late night on Cable. As i was watching it i had a strange feeling that i had heard the story from before. Then I realized that this punk/metal band named Snot wrote a song about the movie and that where i knew it from. Cool move cooler song. I give the movie ***