Jack Kroll started his review by noting, “In an age
when all movie genres are being subverted, postmodernized, de-constructed, film
noir is a tough genre to mess around with. For many true movie fiends, noir is
the key American movie type, and the most fun when it's done right.” “The Usual
Suspects” is done right. Here’s a smart movie, with no special effects, no juvenile
fakes of violence, released during the summer splash season.
Kroll noted, “You have to pay close attention to this
film, to listen hard to its cross-fires of dialogue. Writer Christopher McQuarrie
and director Bryan Singer are talented movie-makers who've made one previous
film, "Public Access," which shared the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993
Sundance Festival.” “The Usual Suspects” is a huge leap forward for this team.
It’s a hard movie about five tough guys who first meet in a jail cell where
they’ve been brought as suspects in a heist. They are Keaton (the great Gabriel
Byrne), who was a corrupt cop but is not trying to possibly go straight,
McManus (Stephen Baldwin), a short-fused break-in master, Hockney (Kevin
Pollak) a hardware specialist, Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), a weirdo who, as
Kroll described, “mumbles like a crook in a Dick Tracy comic,” and “Verbal”
Kint (Kevin Spacey), a con man with cerebral palsy.
Kroll noted, ‘The collision of these five felons sets
off a story line that's the most convoluted since Humphrey Bogart's classic
"The Big Sleep."” Out of jail, the five crooks are recruited by the
evil Kobayashi, played by Pete Postlethwaite. He’s working for Keyser Soze, a
Hungarian crime lord whose murderous cruelty has made him a person of
horrifying legend. His mission for the five is to stop a rival crime boss’s $91
million drug deal. Kroll mentioned, “The collision of these five felons sets
off a story line that's the most convoluted since Humphrey Bogart's classic
"The Big Sleep."” The story is told in flashbacks, as it’s told by
Verbal, the possible sole survivor of the five, in an arrogant interrogation by
Ku-jan, played by Chazz Palminteri, a federal agent obsessed by the vague Soze.
Kroll compared, “"The Usual Suspects" has a
surface resemblance to Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs." But
where Tarantino was out to deconstruct the film noir, to create the ultimate
parody of the metaphysical gangster film, Bryan Singer wants to respect its
classical form. He and McQuarrie do so, using fusillades of language that are
as brutal as the movie's bullets and bombs. Newton Thomas Sigel's succulent
photography and the double-duty gifts of John Ottman, who supplied both the
triphammer editing and the mordant musical score, add to the seductive mood and
narrative fascination.” However, what’s most compelling is the brilliant acting
by an amazing ensemble: the refined yet vicious Byrne, the elaborate
Pestlethwaite, the relentless Palminter and the strangely quiet Spacey. Kroll
credited, “"The Usual Suspects" is the best, most stylish crime movie
since Stephen Frears's 1990 "The Grifters."” Movies still look great
in basic noir.
This is one of the best action thrillers ever. I had
been meaning to check this film out for a long time, and I finally did. I was
hooked from the beginning to see this mystery unfold, and when the twist occurred
at the end, I was shocked and surprised. You might be able to tell early on
what the twist will be, but everyone has to agree that when the twist is
revealed, it is one of the best ever. See it if you haven’t because you are
missing out. I was able to find this on Amazon Prime, and if it is still on
there, check it out. A twist this amazing never happened again until “The Sixth
Sense.” Nowadays, this type of twist is done a lot that it is looking old,
tired, and boring, especially with Shyamalan constantly doing it, but when this
film came out, everyone was shocked. I can’t do this film justice. See it and
know what I mean.
Check in next week when I look at a very strange film
in “Benicio Del Toro Month.”
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