Could have been so much more.

Rating: Null/10 (7 February 2003)

I really wanted to like this film. The basic premise of the plot was great and it had a fantastic cast. But all this seems to have gone to waste. Nicholas Cage's abilities were wasted by a poor script, and let's not go into the accent. John Cussack also seemed very much out of place, and I felt his character added very little to the story. Okay, it was an action film, but there's no reason why the rather intelligent plot basis couldn't have been expanded into a wholly intelligent film. Sadly it was riddled with poor jokes, ridiculous sub-plots, and a lot of unnecessary characters and events.
I must however commend John Malkovich for playing a convincing and genuinely menacing psychopath, and for the best part of the film, Steve Buscemi's talents had not gone to waste, even if his character was a little superfluous to the plot. But that final scene...way to really screw up an average movie.
"Well, he *is* a psychopath and he did kill 30 people, but come on! He played with a little girl for half an hour and now he's gambling! This man can't be all bad!"