Runtime: 106 minutes
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: Kevin Spacey and plenty of famous faces who aren’t as problematic as the director and star
From: Gramercy Pictures
No, my rating has nothing to do with the public sentiment of the director and the actor the movie is centered around. It’s a shame that a talented director and a talented actor are both horrible people in real life for unfortunately similar reasons. Yet my opinion of the movie is one I’ve always had. To expound upon this belief, I never saw this movie in ’95 when it came out; It took until around 2003 when I saw this with a pal in college. The presence of a twist was known by me-what it was exactly was unknown. Afterwards, our opinion of the movie was more "like" than "love"; the specifics as to why were long forgotten.
Now, I remember why my opinion was a hot take then-and perhaps not as much now-and it’s all related to the swerve. The first half of the movie is quite strong as a quintet of people in a police lineup get revenge against the NYPD for hassling them (even though they are criminals convicted for past misdeeds) and while hiding out in California commit more crimes and come across the henchmen of the mysterious Keyser Sose. Kevin Spacey is the one relaying the story to police detective Chazz Palminteri.
I realize many have seen the film by now yet this is still 28 years old, some reading this may not have been born yet (which makes me feel ancient), they may have sworn it off due to who was involved, or any other reason why someone may not even know what the plot twist is. Thus, a few sentences were said to explain the basics. Even if I would go into spoilers-I won’t-it’d be difficult for me to explain some of the “hey, wait a minute” moments of the story.
I won’t reveal what happens; all which will be revealed is that the second half of the film becomes rather ridiculous then the surprise conclusion happens; personally, I won’t say this is “subverting expectations” as I do in a pejorative manner… however, personal preference would have preferred a more traditional story. Knowing that a surprise is coming sort of ruins the experience unless you want to see the breadcrumbs left—and there was more than one obvious clue once you know what to look for.
All the complaining aside, I can still rate this as a good motion picture. After all, what a great cast: everyone from Giancarlo Esposito and Kevin Pollak to Gabriel Byrne and Benicio del Toro before he became real famous. It is well put together, has at least one line of dialogue still famous in ’23, and the best performance is from Spacey, as uneasy as you may feel garnishing praise upon such unsavory people as him and Bryan Singer.
If you can tolerate those unsavory people and are interested in 90’s crime/neo-noir films, then this may still be a worthy first-time watch for you; after all, many people still think The Usual Suspects is great so your mileage may vary. The way I saw the movie last night: a YouTube video as some random account uploaded it in 1080p… a few years ago. Why it’s never been taken down is a mystery to me.
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