The overhead hotel-room sequence prompts a wish for a more provocative background encounter.
Flex pick · Bill Simmons
Atlantic City heavyweight fights; Rick’s gold flip phone; public excitement about the defense secretary; a Columbo reference.
The fixed athlete; De Palma’s craftsmanship; villain reveal; innocent bystander; recurring visual clues; a compromised cop choosing integrity.
The overhead staircase composition echoes Vertigo.
Overhead hotel rooms; Julia’s glasses on the floor; the cracked-door party shot.
Lincoln Tyler, “the Atlantic City Executioner”; Rick Santoro; Commander Kevin Dunne.
“Fat, fabulous, fantastic” and “skinny, mean, expensive.”
Flex pick · Sean Fennessey
Removing the filmed tidal-wave ending.
The assassination plot depends on a 1998 lack of ubiquitous cameras and is needlessly elaborate.
Rick separately reframes Kevin’s betrayal to his wife and sets boundaries with his girlfriend.
Flex pick · Van Lathan
Restore the tidal wave; De Palma is better with lurid material; swap the leads; Nicolas Cage can play any casino-world role.
