Review of The Usual Suspects (1995) by Steve J — 30 May 2014

I'm aware I may catch hell for saying so, but this movie is STUPID. It was so overrated in the 90s that people still go around convinced it's this classic movie...but look again, real hard: the story makes no sense, the dialogue is incredibly forced, the characters are unconvincing, and the filmmakers are totally, and annoyingly, convinced of their own cleverness. I can name 10 other suspense films of the 1990s that show this one for the miserable cheap trick it is. It gets two stars for its fine cast (who are given crappy two-dimensional roles to play), and for being reasonably diverting. And talk about DATED! So many of this film's flourishes are already old hat; it's as much a '90s film' as Saturday Night Fever is a '70s film'.

It actually irritates me that so many people like this movie as much as they do.