Just Saw the Usual Suspects

jeesus christ (spoilers?)

that thing at the end, the first twist, I thought that was it!

I had no idea about the second twist,

that was amazing

It's a great film isn't it?

A friend of mine always used to called me Kaizer Soc-Sec (sp????) when I was social secretary of our judo club, and I didn't realise what it meant until I saw the film.

Not sure whether to be insulted or happy .

IMDB.com has it spelled as Keyser Soze.

Yeah, incredible movie. Cost only $6 million to make, and made about $23 million. Better than Titanic though -- what a cruel world. I'm gonna get this one on DVD.

OH NO!

The Usual Suspects was the biggest cheat in movie history. A solid story was destroyed by a twist that made everything before it irrelevant.

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I couldn't believe that she knew my name. Some of my best friends didn't know my name.

Hey, valbowski: put a spoilers notice on there.

I think it was great -- we know what happened for real. Things happened the way Spacey described them, with a few modifications here and there. It's mostly true, with some things changed.

GREAT MOVIE!

I liked the movie, as well. Amazingly, I didn't see it until very recently. I had always heard it was good, and I even tried to rent it once (Well, I did rent it, but I fell asleep in the first few minutes because it was very late when I tried to watch it). But I had never successfully watched.

I finally just went and bought the DVD.

I don't see how the end "ruined" the movie. Without that ending, The Usual Suspects would be merely average.

Don't you see? The ending makes the story MORE interesting, because you don't know exactly what he said was true and what wasn't (e.g. we know Kobayashi existed, only his name obviously wasn't Kobayashi).

"Without that ending, The Usual Suspects would be merely average"

This is exactly my point. The only reason the film achieved such plaudits and such a cult following is because of its conclusion (and perhaps Kevin Spacey's performance). Remove the twist and it's a nothing film.

Contrast this with The Sixth Sense and Fight Club, two recent films with twist endings. Here, the twist doesn't interfere with the rest of the movie. Everybody remembers the "I see dead people" scene from The Sixth Sense, not the final scene and Fight Club's twist was unnecessary and forgettable.

What scene does everyone remember from The Usual Suspects? The final walk, nothing else. This, to me equals failure.

Arthur: 99% of the time, I'd agree with you. An ending with a twist cannot make up for a boring movie, but The Usual Suspects was different, and here's why: the whole movie was about figuring out how Keyser Soze is...

...you KNEW it was about Soze. The Sixth Sense, for example, was not about that. It was mostly about other things, and then came out of nowhere. The thing about Soze is that he was RIGHT under your nose the entire time, and you still didn't figure it out.

I also just recently watched this film for the first time and again for the second time last night. I think this film is incredible. I enjoyed it more the second time I watched it because I sat there trying to pick out the hints and bits of irony. Very well written and the cast was wonderful.

Two thumbs up in my book.

I actually thought the movie was a bit boring, but then the end completely changed that for me! Now if I watch it again I know I won't be bored,

Wow, my heart just kinda stopped when it showed his feet straightening up and him just walking straight

*He said though, you'll probably never see him again, but then right after Spacey leaves in the car, the FBI will put him in the top 10 wanted list, his name would be all over the papers.. He would probably be easier to catch now that everyone knows what he looks like.

Personally, I loved the movie. It would not have been so great without the twist, this is true. But the twist is there, it is a vital part of the movie. Anylyzing what the movie would have been like without it seems to be kind of moot. It would be like ripping the last 100 pages from a great book and saying "see, it's not that great of a book after all."

Which makes the film... merely average?


my thoughts...

The Usual Suspects (1995, Bryan Singer)



The best things about this film are the chemistry of the ensemble rogues gallery of actors, and of course the twist at the end, which is sufficiently cool for what's it's worth. Beyond that, the viewer gets a basic crime caper heist film. Heist films can be great or lame. The Usual Suspects seems built around building viewer expectation and turning it about on its head. This is fine, but I would hardly say it is enough to justify the somewhat modern classic reputation this film has garnered in the past couple of decades.
I don't really need to go much into the plot. The narrative is tight for sure, and non-traditional, out of order story-telling has been a staple of film-noir and its kin for decades. All of this is fine and well, but often times these lesser noirs fall flat in the character department. Sure the characters are interesting, but they purely exist within the realm of film and fail to transcend that fourth wall between the screen and viewer to become something real. I didn't really care about any character in The Usual Suspects because none were well developed outside of their ability to service the plot.
Certainly some noirs are great. You can't help but cry tears for Bogart in In a Lonely Place. The only actor in The Usual Suspects able to pull their character beyond archetype is Gabriel Byrne's former cop turned criminal.
When taking a good look at The Usual Suspects, the ending fits nicely into the puzzle the film creates, but it's an emotionless and ultimately forgettable ride. Sure you can tell me who the real Keyser Soze is, but can you tell me what the usual suspects were meant to rob on the ship after you haven't watched the film in over a year? Not likely. There's another great caper film out there that I haven't watched in sometime and I can still tell you about the horse and the dog. Beyond the twist ending and some finely polished storytelling, The Usual Suspects rings a tad hollow and vanishes... poof... into the thin recesses of my memory. The greatest trick the filmmakers pulled with this film is to convince the viewer of its greatness.

Grade: C+

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Fantastic write up. I have to say you've worded this better than I could have and you've somehow taped into my exact thoughts on this film right down to the rating. I would like to add that other than not seeing Valkyrie (2008) this is Singers best work which doesn't say much. Public Access and X2 are both close seconds but really as a filmmaker he has yet to show true progress in his career that was once a promising one.

Yes, I don't mind him. I think he makes quality stuff and is a very competent filmmaker, I just don't appraise him in the category that some might.

Strangely enough I think the most brilliant thing he's associated with and has on his resume is the TV series "House."

Not a fan of The Usual Suspects, either. It's been awhile since I've seen it, but I remember it being in the "C" range, as well.

The Usual Suspects gets an A in my opinion. The characters we're both fun and interesting. The twist is one of the best in film history.I agree with Porthos previous post. The ending is part of the movie, you can't just discard it and say it was average without it. I think the ending made a great movie excellent. 5/5

I still give it a B-, but as I said previously the film is ill-constructed. They tell you in the first five minutes who Kaiser Soze is, but I'm starting to think they tried to re-edit the DVD so that you couldn't hear his voice as clearly as you did originally. I think it's a reasonably entertaining flick but you have to remember that some of this "backlash" is due to the fact that it's got so many freakin' fanboys.

P.S. Kevin Spacey deserved his Oscar that year, but he deserved it for SE7EN.

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Yes, he seemed more evil in Se7en. But I have issues with Se7en as well. Mainly I can't seem to accept the premise.

Film usual... Anything new. It is possible to look, but to reconsider there is no desire.