Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

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.

jon-warren-1 i have been a Nick Cage fan for a long time and love how he has so many personalities when it comes to getting in character. my roommate had this flick in his DVD collection and i watched it and it was pretty cool, not the best thing ever but i was surprised that i had never seen it since it was a film that Nicholas Cage appeared in. the film was directed by Christopher Coppola, Nick's relative, which i did not know previously, but that might explain why Nick Cage was let loose as far as being a wild card while doing his character Eddy, probably because he had more freedom to do what he wanted since this was not a mega-movie like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie etc.....Michael Biehn is good in it as well, he acts similar to how he usually is in movies such as his most well known character in Terminator, but it works. James Coburn is in it and plays a good part for the type of actor he is, its cool that he can be in such eccentric little films such as this one even though he has done so much in film in his life already.this film has a little mystery, a little dark eccentric humor, some thugs, and mostly set at nighttime, but Nicholas Cage's character is the most memorable one because he plays a high-strung, over the edge guy and he really gets into character, because his voice is different, he has a fake moustache, cheap haircut, sunglasses and weird eyes, it is such an eccentric character that he put out there which i love.there is one particular moment i recall that was funny in an eccentric way, he was in a strip club and he was all strung-out and drinking or on drugs and he was messing with the stripper on stage and then on his way out he throws a drink on a random stranger and then proceeds to stand in the middle of the whole place with his arms raised and yells "F**K YOOOOUUUUUUUU !!!!!!! and then on his way out the door he snaps and does a karate-chop, kung-fu move on some guy for no reason at all and kicks the living crap out of him,hahaha,.................(btw, just from me being a little too observant, i noticed that in that scene when he yells the "F" word, i noticed there is a guy sitting at a table behind him with a black t-shirt with bold white letters saying the same thing, (F*** Y**), and i just thought it was weird that they did that.its just an OK movie to watch if your a Nicholas Cage fan and like dark humor and indy type films or mysteries and thats that.

ibufen Gawd, this movie sucks! The only reason worth watching it is Nicolas Cage. THE most over-acting performance I have yet seen in a film, EVER! What was he on?