The Usual Suspects [Blu-ray] | Suzy Amis, Stephen Baldwin | One of the more memorable films of...

The Usual Suspects [Blu-ray] | Suzy Amis, Stephen Baldwin | Excellent

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The Usual Suspects...

	The Usual Suspects [Blu-ray] Suzy Amis, Stephen Baldwin Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 2007 average customer review:based on 556 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

One of the more memorable films of the 1990s

"The Usual Suspects" twists, turns, charms, and delivers a wallop of a twist, making this thriller one of the more memorable films of the 1990s. Kevin Spacey plays the club-footed, meek con man Verbal who is under intense interrogation by the police for his role in an armed robbery. As he cracks and begins to reveal the intricacies of what happened, the viewer plunges into the story along with Verbal's interrogators. What seemed simple to the police is at first is anything but, especially when the mysterious and dangerous Keyser Soze becomes involved.

This stylish, postmodern film is driven by two conflicts: the complex crime devised by the band of "usual suspects ((Stephen Baldwin, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollack, Gabriel Byne, and Spacey) and the central mystery: Who is Keyser Soze, and why does everyone fear him? The acting is superb, with Spacey and Byrne turning in especially fine performances. Its haunting soundtrack evokes a cinematic atmosphere so particular to the film that even a few bars of it can evoke the entire movie.

The DVD is well worth purchasing, as it is the kind of film that one can watch over and over, even after learning of the twist. The enjoyment of knowing the end does not diminish the whole, as subsequent viewings reveal intriguing subtleties and details that were likely to have been missed the first, or even the second, time around. Highly recommended.

-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

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Excellent

A great film (we all know that) but the extras on the DVD are fabulous. If you like the film, you'll love this.

"You think you can catch Keyser Soze?"

So many wonderful quotes in this movie. It's a delight to watch. The movie is cleverly plotted and stars a wonderful cast. the highlight of the movie has to be Oscar winner Kevin Spacey. He plays his part brilliantly well.

The DVD itself is also top botch, with two cmmentaries, a number of deleted scenes and some featurettes. Definitely must have.

David Mamets' best by far, amazing performances by Kevin Spacey and Benicio Del Torro

This movie is a work of art. Astounding acting. Unexpectedly humorous. Twists more times than kite string. Not for the preoccupied or people with short attention spans. The kind of movie you can watch 3 times and still notice things that eluded you before. Richard Roeper, from the Ebert & Roeper tv show, said that David Mamet might be the best screen writer presently working.

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Great suspense but felt manipulated ! Twist not convincing

Great suspense but unconvincing twist !

****Spoiler alert*****
I was bit surprised reading lot of positive reviews after seeing the movie. Well the plot is described in many reviews already. It is story of 5 gang men criminals who agree to blow up a ship where cocaine transaction worth 91 million takes place. The gang men do this disheartedly due to threat of someone called 'Keyser' who knows all their criminal history essentially blackmailing them. After the operation, there are only one survivor (Kevin spacey) who is given immunity after the incident.
The police interrogates him about the blowup to get possible clue of the actual assassin 'Keyser Soze'. Who is this Keyser soze ? Most of the movie is flashback narration of Kevin spacey to help police find out the killer. I won't spoil the the plot further !
The suspense is no doubt thrilling but somehow the story building is unconvincing. I felt more manipulated at when suspense unfolds. Why ? There are so many scenes earlier in the movie which don't make sense at all. Yet due to buildup in the beginning, we try to focus on each scene like investigators only to find that pieces don't fit. It is as if the director played a trick on us and this makes suspense uncompelling.
(Moreover flashback storytelling, I was confused about the sequence of scenes in the movie). We wear investigator cap to analyze the plot and we realize most of it is useless. Also, the details leading to revelation of plot suspense is not convincing. No clues revealed at the end have relavance to the earlier plot. It is as if the director played trick by pulling the rug without any clue.
My comments are probably influenced due to comparision with Sixth sense movie. The movie is probably inspiration to 'twist ending' thrillers like 'Sixth sense' movie. In Sixth sense, the dead man doesn't know he is dead and yet there is scene when suffering boy says 'I see dead people and they don't know they are dead' to the dead man itself. After the suspense, we are compelled to look back the entire plot and it is still convincing. We see many other dead people talking to the boy in many scenes. This makes sixth sense is so bold in storytelling that at the end we don't feel tricked or manipulated (although trick is played on us by Night).
Entire movie seems convincing and we rewind the movie to see again.
This is where 'Usual suspects' fails ! We rather feel manipulated by director. I would prefer to be watch a drama rather than a manipulative thriller.
The movie however has excellent screenplay. The music score by John Ottman is hypnotic and evokes emotion to the plot. Kevin spacey is powerful actor and he does great job as crippled passive criminal !

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