A film noir of sorts, narrated by the son of a lifelong grifter. One day the con goes bad, and the grifter's son (Michael Biehn) shoots his dad (James Coburn). The dying Coburn, head of the "crew", gives a cryptic message to his son which sets Biehn on an oddessy to find an uncle he never knew he had. In the process, an odd assortment of over the top and incoherent characters, parades through the story. This movie should have been the end of Nicolas Cage's career. A performance like that has been the end of many before, but their names aren't Coppola. The unrealistic story falls short of campy or parody and leads up to a "twist" where James Coburn has set the whole thing up, is not really dead, and the uncle was played by him all along. Biehn leaves the grifter lifestyle disillusioned and alone.
As many before seem to have said, Michael Biehn, James Coburn, Charlie Sheen, Peter Fonda, and the rest of the decent cast, could have been enough to carry even this weak script and have made it watchable. Except the Coppola team of Nicholas Cage and Christopher Coppola seem to have gone the extra mile to sabotage them. Nicholas Cage is an actor who thinks that method acting means talking in weird, unintelligible, accents and dressing like a complete boob. According to the trivia on this movie, he thought that was more "believable". I would ask: On what planet? It was distracting and annoying. I think it was his attempt at scene-stealing. I give it a 2 because as bad as it was - watching Biehn and Coburn wasn't ALL bad. The wardrobe of Sarah Trigger had a very nice 1940's feel without being 1940's at all. VERY risqué sex scene between Trigger and Biehn.
Overall: Change the channel.
As many before seem to have said, Michael Biehn, James Coburn, Charlie Sheen, Peter Fonda, and the rest of the decent cast, could have been enough to carry even this weak script and have made it watchable. Except the Coppola team of Nicholas Cage and Christopher Coppola seem to have gone the extra mile to sabotage them. Nicholas Cage is an actor who thinks that method acting means talking in weird, unintelligible, accents and dressing like a complete boob. According to the trivia on this movie, he thought that was more "believable". I would ask: On what planet? It was distracting and annoying. I think it was his attempt at scene-stealing. I give it a 2 because as bad as it was - watching Biehn and Coburn wasn't ALL bad. The wardrobe of Sarah Trigger had a very nice 1940's feel without being 1940's at all. VERY risqué sex scene between Trigger and Biehn.
Overall: Change the channel.