Review of The Usual Suspects (1995) by Steve G — 18 Mar 2015

THIS is what I've been hearing about?

Ultimately, even the twist ending couldn't save this film (lifted from Primal Fear?), though admittedly somewhat interesting. It's just a story very poorly told. It seems as thought the entire movie was created to set up the huge twist ending. The problem is, again, that the first hour & a half is just not interesting enough for me to care about the pay-off.

Bryan Singer manages to keep his perfect record (perfectly CRAPPY record), as far as films I've seen by him (*I've seen Valkyrie since. It was decent.). And I thought this would be the exception. It would not be so.

There's nothing more pretentious than a bad crime movie.

The faux hip gangster talk... so cheesy.

Reeks of geeky little screenwriter living in a basement attempting.

To portray his dreams & visions of coolness via gangster talk, hoping that MAYBE he too will attain a higher level of hipness. It would not be.

Screenplay is SO phony. Only the Academy would be impressed.

(And what's with Del Toro's completely random disappearance from the movie?).

It was barely an hour & a half, but it felt like forever. I could not care about anyone or anything in the movie.

Ebert said it best. "To the degree that I do understand, I don't care.".

However, one redeeming factor was Spacey's very good performance. Also, the Kobayashi character was well-played.

Crime movies should not be done unless it's by those who know what they're doing. I'm so sick of wanna-be bad-ass crime movies. The '70s ended, guys. Unless your name is Puzo, go away.