Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Think you've figured it out? WRONG!
It is hard to believe that the time it took to write this movie took only slightly longer than the running time of the finished project. Never in my life have I been so caught up in a suspense-laden drama-action movie and been caught so off guard by the ending.Five (in)famous criminals take on the big heist that will enable them to retire. How did they get thrown together? For whom are they working, really? Whom do they trust? And what about this Keyser Soze? Is he real? Who is he, and what does he have to do with any of this? This movie was a brilliant marriage between spectacular acting and phenomenal writing. This movie is so worth your time, it's worth purchasing for your home collection. I have seen it many times and find something new in it each time I see it. Although Kevin Spacey won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Verbal, Gabriel Bryne, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Pollak, Stephen Baldwin and Chazz Palminteri all turn in exceptional performances to make this film a can't-miss. Be sure to watch this movie when you won't be interrupted. Turn off the ringer on your phone, make sure the kids are asleep, turn off the lights, and prepare yourself...
Rating:  - DEFINITELY NOT......YOUR "USUAL" MOVIE
"The Usual Suspects" certainly defies pigeon holing or labeling. Its larger-than-life allure results from a seamless blending of elements: Pschodrama, Action, Suspense and Mystery, all built on intricate storytelling, a dynamic screenplay and taught direction, by Bryan Singer. The aforementioned are all bolstered by credible in-depth character development, brought to life by an outstanding cast, who flesh out each role to chilling near perfection. (Kevin Spacey, seen here before most people would have recognized his name, received an Oscar for his "supporting" role!)But let's not get sidetracked. More than anything else,"SUSPECTS" is about the unparalleled unsettling reaction you get from viewing it! From the first scene to the end credits, it gets a headlock on your psyche, while sending the pit of your stomach into endless free fall! The only way to illustrate this, without giving away any key elements of the film, is a detailed look at the opening scene....a peerless example of instant timeless classic film noir. On a boat, docked in San Pedro Harbor, the dying sole-survivor of an apparently devastating bloodbath shootout painfully ignites a thin trail of gasoline. His obvious intention: Destroy EVERYTHING...himself included! From a deck higher up, an unseen someone pisses out the trail of flames. The shadowy figure walks down the stairs with an unhurried beliberation and saunters over to the agonizing man he has just saved. They exchange somewhat forced greetings and a few disjointed words of banter. Without warning, the intruder firmly raises a pistol, his unblinking gaze reflected in eyes locked in contact with his own. Unhesitatingly, he fires two consecutive shots. A brief pause of contemplation ends when he casually lights a cigarette, stategically dropping his lighter to rekindle the liquid fuse, and then beats a hasty off-board retreat. What better way to introduce a character whose twisted iron resolve is so perverse, so deranged, that he saves a doomed man seconds before certain death, solely for the unmititgated pleasure derived from looking him squarely in the eye, his victim looking right back, while pulling the trigger himself. Without uttering a syllable, his actions shout out,"I piss on you and your puny existence!" His victim's final moments are thusly converted into a living/dying testimony, clearly demonstrating who it is that decides the particulars of when and how he will die! "SUSPECTS" has been severely critiqued by a vocal minority (to paraphrase another Amazon reviewer) for not knowing the difference between a plot twist and a non sequitur. With all due respect to the reviewer, who painstakingly highlighted the difference for us, perhaps a careful second viewing would shed some light on the source of this common confusion. After watching "SUSPECTS" four times making every effort to employ my most discerning eye, I am convinced the true genius of the movie hinges on this particular point! Let me underscore my unequivocal recommendation of this film with a special note to those of you who avoid the Action or Suspense genre becuase of your distaste of the excessive violence that generally characterizes them. Well, THIS IS NO JOHN WOO FILM! A lot of the scenes are done in the "Old School" style, where the violence is kept off-screen. Although there is considerable TALK in "SUSPECTS" about some of the most dastardly deeds imaginable, virtually none of this is graphically portrayed. So, PLEASE, if you have not seen it yet, because of this reason, I urge you to make an exception in this case...GET IT AND SEE IT!
Rating: - Not your usual movie
A multi-layered story of rapacious greed and ambition, "Usual Suspects" puts together a great cast and a story-within-a-story plot. The Suspects include Keaton (Byrne) a disgraced ex-cop; Roger "Verbal" Kint (Spacey), a club-footed petty criminal; Hockney (Pollack) the explosives expert; McManus (Baldwin) who's something of an explosive himself and Fenster (Del Toro). I'm not sure what Fenster's role is, but given the hushed and marble-mouth tones that he speaks in, nobody else seems to know either. The story is told in flashback by Verbal after the rest are either dead or presumed dead. The film begins with the explosive destruction of a freighter in southern California. Only one other man, the freighter's horrifically burnt passenger, survives. He knows nothing of our heroes, instead ranting about "Keyser Soze". Recognizing the name of an international criminal who murders almost on whim, and connecting him to the Suspects, a federal agent (Palmintierri) who's made a career of investigating Keaton, puts Verbal on the grill, forcing Spacey's character to recount how the boys came to know each other. Gathered weeks earlier by the police as suspects or line-up fillers in the hijacking of a police truck carrying guns earmarked for destruction, the suspects (Verbal being one of the "fillers") are initially strangers, yet join together and form a plan. Released when nobody gets pinned for the truck rap, the Suspects go into business - targeting for robbery various high-level smugglers who pay to keep the police at arms length. Soon their rep brings them to the west coast, but we also learn that they had already come to the attention of Keyser Soze - by virtue of how their crimes have come at his expense. Blackmailed by Soze through his attorney, Kobayashi (Pete Posthlethwaite, looking and sounding more Indo-Pak than Japanese), the suspects reluctantly follow his orders and shoot their way into a docked freighter loaded (says Kobayashi) with a fortune in cocaine. By now, Verbal has recounted what he knows of Soze - less a man than a force of nature gone bad; a Hungarian criminal who killed his own family rather than let rivals hold them hostages against him; a mass killer who not only hunts down those who had tried to hold his family hostage, but their friends and families as well. Soze's is the name that that career criminals utter to themselves when they need something to keep them up at night.Okay, that's as far as I can go without spoiling it. Sure, you'll probably figure out the big secret within the first few minutes (once a police sketch artist is brought in, the secret will practically leap out at you). Nevertheless, the script works some great magic. The ultimate trick isn't Keyser Soze secret identity but how the story gets you to root and care for a crew of wretched, murderous and greedy losers who'd be fodder in a more upstanding story. The biggest mystery of all, when I saw it, was figuring out what kind of movie this was. I had an idea that it would be some buddy-buddy picture of good-guy criminals - a sort of "Brinks Job" for the 1990's, but the result is much more satisfying.
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