Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Usual Suspects (1995)


A boat has been destroyed, criminals are dead, and the key to this mystery lies with the only survivor and his twisted, convoluted story beginning with five career crooks in a seemingly random police lineup. [imdb]

Nominated for 2 Oscars:

Best Supporting Actor: Kevin Spacey (WINNER)
Best Original Screenplay (WINNER)

Let's just say I had never seen this film before, even though I was very familiar with the subject, seen a couple of scenes and knew the ending and WHO is Keyser Soze. Did the fact that I knew the twist spoil it for me? Not really, because I don't think I would've enjoyed it anyway. Usual Suspects has a reputation of being a mystery masterpiece, with a huge fan base and an imdb rating that's through the roof.
The two scenes I enjoyed from this movie are the action-packed ones: the attack on the police car and the elevator scene. Bryan Singer really knows how to direct action shit, but the screenplay was a bit too complicated to work and the historical twist left me cold, as I thought it was just thrown there and it didn't explain many other holes from the screenplay. So, I would've given the Original Screenplay Oscar to Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite. Kevin Spacey gives a good, almost leading, performance, but I'm not sure he deserved to win. At times, he's either boring or forcing the line reading.
My rating for the film: 7/10. Some good action shit, but overrated and less spectacular than promoted.

4 comments:

  1. I loved this movie. I have to tell you that knowing the twist ending going in would definitely hamper the experience. I went into this movie fresh, and the ending blew me away. I'm not saying it's a perfect film, but the twist was magic for me.

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  2. OK, I get that :) , but at the end I though there were lot of things left unexplained. I want my twist to fit better

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  3. I'm not really disagreeing with you. To be honest, the story isn't that great, and you are correct that the twist ending doesn't really solve much or answer all the questions...It just worked for me, I don't know what else to say. :)

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  4. Agree on Spacey. I'm glad you said it, it was always one of those things I felt bad about. (How absurd, though, to feel bad about such a thing?)

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