Deadfall (1993)

Joe (Michael Biehn) learned grifting from his father Mike Donan (James Coburn). In his final deadly con, Joe is supposed to shoot him with a blank but the bullet turns out to be real. As Joe looks into his mysterious unknown life, Joe discovers his money had been stolen by his twin Lou (James Coburn). Eddie (Nicolas Cage) and Diane (Sarah Trigger) work for Lou.This tries to be a noirish crime drama. It never gets to feel real. From the bullet onwards, there are obvious questions left hanging. There are jumps in logic. There are easy conveniences. Then there is Nicolas Cage. His is a fake character gone too far. He's insane bothering on a cartoon. The movie stops being a real thing. Everything is in question and Joe is too dumb in not asking them. The con becomes a mess and none of it matters. The whole movie is a mess.

I rented this film because of the legendary cast. Michael biehn, nic cage, Angus scrimm-the tall man himself, Charlie sheen, Talia shire, and peter Fonda. But even an eccentric and solid cast couldn't save dead fall. The acting is some of the weakest I've seen from these actors. Nic cage goes gonzo over the top, so much so that he is the only redeemable thing in the movie. Michael biehn is solid but he seems very bored. It features lobster hands, twin brothers, a really cheese narration, one of the lamest and unerotic sex scenes ever filmed, death by deep fryer, and Charlie sheen looking sexual. Overall, interesting cast cant redeem a clichéd and slow thriller without any thrills.

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.

What is everyone's problem with this film? It really isn't that bad. I can not believe how many people have given this film a 1. This is a very low budget, very B movie that manages to turn out a fairly average film. Considering the cast, it should be much better but that doesn't justify the unfair criticism. Nicolas Cage is awful in this film, probably spoils most of it with his over acting. Hard to believe that it is the same man who was such a star in The Rock, Con Air and Face/Off! Michael Biehn has been much better but he is very likeable and believable, especially with his fears over the final con. The best scene in the film no doubt belongs to Biehn and Charlie Sheen. I headed for the snooker club afterwards and felt the need to sniffle "Damn, I'm good!" Needs to be given a chance.