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Very well said! There is something lacking there. It's just ok for me, and the characters are interesting enough, but for some reason I can't seem to sink my teeth into it. Oddly enough, whenever I think of this movie, L.A Confidential immediately comes to mind. That one has way more substance and pull for me. The Usual Suspects seems to have kept me as a viewer at a distance.
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+
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+
Apparently Gabe is just like how I imagine him in real life - bit too serious and pretentious for his own good. Liked how they slyly took the piss out of Steph 'newborn' Baldwin though.
