MGM Usual Suspects (Blu-Ray) Winner of two 1995 Academy Awards(R), including Best Original Screenplay, this masterful,
atmospheric film noir enraptured audiences with its complex and riveting storyline, gritty, tour-de-force performances (including
an Oscar(R)-winning turn by Kevin Spacey) and a climax that is truly deserving of the word stunning. Also starring Stephen
Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak and Pete Postlethwaite, this 'thoroughly engrossing film (HBO) is so
gripping and diabolically clever (The Wall Street Journal) that it becomes a maze you'll be happy to get lost in (Los Angeles
Times)! Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that the mythic crime lord not only
exists,but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an
explosion in San Pedro Harbor leaving few survivors. But as Kint lures his interrogators into the incredible story of this
crime lord's almost supernatural prowess, so too will you be mesmerized by a lore that is completely captivating from beginning
to end! Ever since this convoluted thriller dazzled audiences and critics in 1995 and won an Oscar for Christopher McQuarrie's
twisting screenplay, The Usual Suspects has continued to divide movie lovers into opposite camps. While a lot of people take
great pleasure from the movie's now-famous central mystery (namely, "Who is Keyser S?ﾶze?"), others aren't so easily impressed
by a movie that's too enamored of its own cleverness to make much sense. After all, what are we to make of a final scene that
renders the entire movie obsolete? Half the fun of The Usual Suspects is the debate it provokes and the sheer pleasure of
watching its dynamic cast in action, led (or should we say, misled) by Oscar winner Kevin Spacey as the club-footed con man
who recounts the saga of enigmatic Hungarian mobster Keyser S?ﾶze. Spacey's in a band of thieves that includes Gabriel Byrne,
Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, and Benicio Del Toro, all gathered in a plot to steal a large shipment of cocaine. The story
is told in flashback as a twisted plot being described by Spacey's character to an investigating detective (Chazz Palmintieri),
and The Usual Suspects is enjoyable for the way it keeps the
viewer guessing right up to its surprise ending. Whether that
ending will enhance or extinguish the pleasure is up to each
viewer to decide. Even if it ultimately makes little or no sense
at all, this is a funny and fiendish thriller, guaranteed to
entertain even its vocal detractors.
Ever since this convoluted thriller dazzled audiences and critics in 1995 and won an Oscar for Christopher McQuarrie's
twisting screenplay, The Usual Suspects has continued to divide movie lovers into opposite camps. While a lot of people take
great pleasure from the movie's now-famous central mystery (namely, "Who is Keyser S?ﾶze?"), others aren't so easily impressed
by a movie that's too enamored of its own cleverness to make much sense. After all, what are we to make of a final scene that
renders the entire movie obsolete? Half the fun of The Usual Suspects is the debate it provokes and the sheer pleasure of
watching its dynamic cast in action, led (or should we say, misled) by Oscar winner Kevin Spacey as the club-footed con man
who recounts the saga of enigmatic Hungarian mobster Keyser S?ﾶze. Spacey's in a band of thieves that includes Gabriel Byrne,
Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, and Benicio Del Toro, all gathered in a plot to steal a large shipment of cocaine. The story
is told in flashback as a twisted plot being described by Spacey's character to an investigating detective (Chazz Palmintieri),
and The Usual Suspects is enjoyable for the way it keeps the viewer guessing right up to its surprise ending. Whether that
ending will enhance or extinguish the pleasure is up to each viewer to decide. Even if it ultimately makes little or no sense
at all, this is a funny and fiendish thriller, guaranteed to entertain even its vocal detractors. --Jeff Shannon
