Deadfall
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DVD details
Actor: Michael Biehn, Nicolas CageBrand: Lions Gate
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-10-03
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Lions Gate
DVD Reviews of Deadfall
DVD Review: Nicolas Cage Unhinged
Summary: 3 Stars
Directed and co-written by Nicolas Cage's brother Christopher Coppola, Deadfall is a forgotten wannabe film-noir that has not even achieved "cult status" for its overly campy nature. I think that many involved with the film thought they were making a good film and were taking it seriously...Furthermore, I think the only person who realized the movie sucked was Nicolas Cage and he didn't have the heart to tell his brother. It's clear right as you start watching Deadfall, that the most prestigious thing about the movie is the DVD cover.
A summary is hardly necessarily, but basically there's a con man named Joe (Michael Biehn) who accidentally kills his father (James Coburn) in a con gone bad. His Uncle Lou (James Coburn again) is also a con man, with a psychotic right-hand man Eddie (Nicolas Cage). Meeting his Uncle Lou for the first time, Joe sees a chance for one last big con.
Deadfall does not provide anything new or innovative as far as film-noir goes; there's even the obligatory voice-over by Biehn that is both poorly written and spoken. Biehn sounds uncomfortable saying it throughout and when voice-over makes up a significant percentage of your film, you can't have that. It has actors that are all talented, but, with the exception of two, they seem determined not to show it. Leading lady Sarah Trigger (as Biehn's love interest) seems to be reading from cue cards, Biehn sleepwalks throughout the film, and many of the notable actors (Peter Fonda, Talia Shire) don't stay long enough to make any kind of impression. However, Charlie Sheen has a small role that had me questioning whether the director was asking Sheen to be ominous or to parody someone trying to be ominous. And of course there's Dr. Lyme (played by Angus Scrimm, a.k.a. The Tall Man), who seems to have walked out of a bad David Lynch movie into Coppola's film. I wonder if Coppola wrote the initial script and his co-writer added Dr. Lyme after realizing how bad the film was going to be anyway. For the most part, the film seems desperate to seem intelligent and engaging, but ends up feeling like diet David Mamet.
The late James Coburn seems to be giving a performance in a different film and, as Uncle Lou; he gives the most straight-forward performance. As Joe's father though, he falls into camp territory too. But not a single performance in this film matters except for one. There's only one performance in this film that still brings this film any attention and it's the one performance that is impossible not to mention when talking about the movie. That performance is by, none other, than Nicolas Cage.
Cage plays Eddie, a psychopath and two-bit con man. There is no method to this performance, like Cage simply abandoned any and all technique to play the character. Within ten minutes of appearing onscreen, Cage changes his accent twice and most of his dialogue is nonsensical (yet highly quotable) gibberish. I'm not sure if Eddie has any purpose in this film, but because of Cage's performance I'm glad someone thought so. Whether you love or hate Nicolas Cage, you can't deny that Cage's performance is the most fascinating aspect of this movie. Almost everything Cage does as an actor had me asking myself "what is he doing?" or "why is he doing this?" He goes beyond "over-the-top," absolutely chewing apart the scenery...Seeing Nicolas Cage unhinged is entertaining enough when he's trying (such as in Bad Lieutenant), but when he doesn't seem to care at all he still leaves us with one very memorable movie character.
Cage can't completely redeem the film by making a mockery of it with his performance though. The entire production feels amateurish, strange with its director being part of the Coppola clan. Christopher Coppola singlehandedly proves that good filmmaking is not genetic. Deadfall has lazy acting, weak voice-over work, and a terrible score (a score used so inappropriately throughout the film, the only thing it does is make the film more cheesy than it is). It wouldn't be worth any of your time, but if you like Nicolas Cage and you don't mind killing some time watching him act crazy for about half an hour, you can't pass this up. It's campy, ridiculous, and amateurish but falls into the category of "so bad...It's alright."
GRADE: C
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Description of Deadfall
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