If stylistic auteur, De Palma seemed abnormally contained behind the camera in "Mission Impossible," here he gets to let it all hang out. Unfortunately the material that De Palma chooses to hang his flair on feels like a paltry version of "No Way Out" as if penned by Crichton or Grisham. Nicolas Cage, full bodied as ever, stars as an Atlantic City cop with a few bad habits and domestic issues. It's fight night at the big casino and his pal Gary Sinise, a naval officer, is ringside for for the heavyweight championship to protect the Secretary of Defense. As the fight goes down, so does the valued statesman, to an assassin's bullet, and Cage and Sinise embark on a voracious manhunt to find a mysterious woman who has knowledge of the unfolding conspiracy. Cage and Sinise earn their pay, but the story by De Palma and David Koepp -- which strains for romantic glory of De Palma's "Blow Out" or "Obsession" -- gives away too much too early.
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