Rating: 
Summary: Enter the labyrinth
Review: What earns a film the characterisation "classic"? First and foremost a great script. Check, then. The "Usual Suspects" has the definition of a great script. It keeps you guessing until literally the very last minute when it leaves you in awe. Story twists and state-of-the-art mind games are dominant throughout while parts of the story could actually be separate films alltogether.
A big heist involving 5 former convicts, a mysterious underground lord called "Keyser Sose", and the story being told in retrospect by "Verbal" (Kevin Spacey), a cripple who is interrogated by a top cop (Palminteri) is the basic outline.
As you try to make sense out of what "verbal" says (while the "facts" keep constantly changing and "verbal" keeps adjusting his story according to the new clues coming in) the mind game keeps climaxing and the myth about Keyser Sose elevates to incredible manipulations. In fact, the basic theme of the film is "who is Keyser Sose"? And, exactly because "Keyser" could be any of a number of "suspects", he could be dead, or he might not even exist the intrigue remains intact till the end.
And what an end this is. Possibly one of the most ingenius film-endings ever on celluloid, one not to give away if you are a true fan of the "Usual suspects" or a true fan of cinema.
But the positives don't stop there. Kevin Spacey doesn't simply give yet another solid performance, he gives a trademark performance, one that many a character have since been based-on on film and doubtlessly more are to follow as the character of "Verbal" is sharply inspiring.
But then every character in the film has dynamic abilities, every character contributes as a corridor to the endless labyrinth of clues you are trying to collect as you watch. Gabriel Byrne and Del Toro, Stephen Baldwin and Kevin Pollack as well as Palminteri are all in superb form here. The second time I watched this film it became very obvious that all the actors loved being in this stunning flick. No wonder.
The director falls not short either, he lets the characters lead and he does his part in setting up the scenery where the elusive Keyser Sose can "exist". A scenery dark and intimidating like the character in question. The main element is the fear everyone seems to out over "Sose" but at the same time noone knows for sure what he does or what he is. The most clues are given, perhaps, by Keyser's "right hand" the enigmatic "Mr. Kobayashi" who serves also as a guide to Sose's power for the viewers.
Mindblowing film. Puts the "C" into classic.
Rating:
Summary: A Bard's Review
Review: I admit I did not see this film in the theater, and I regret that. But the DVD is great. I highly recommend this film to anybody who loves a good mystery. The movie tantalizes you with directing. And the movie flows so smoothly, that you will not see the surprise ending coming. Truly an engrossing film to watch. There are two types of movies made: Movies to BUY and movies to RENT. This truly is a "buy" movie.
Rating:
Summary: Great Time at the Movies
Review: This is one of the few movies we have seen where we could not easily foretell the ending. Kevin Spacey was terrific we thought and the revelation at the end was awesome. The only problem is that once you've seen it, it will never be as good again the second time (though you can then spend your time looking for clues). Still, a great time at the movies.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated
Review: This film is overrated. Very, very overrated. I guessed the "trick ending" almost as the movie started. The whole damned film hinges on this "trick ending". Bad acting, bad plot, almost incomprehensible dialogue, and a lack of buildup to the twist at the end. We are given clues, but the end has no dramatic "rightness". It's just an ending, with no brilliance to it.
Rating:
Summary: A very impressive movie
Review: Since this movie revolves around its plot twists, all I can really say is that this movie is REALLY good, and definitely worth the watch.
Rating:
Summary: Keyser Söze
Review: This is, without question, one of the best films of 1995, and one of the best mysteries ever. It feels sort of like MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. You'll spend the whole movie wondering who's messing with whom, who the mysterious Keyser Söze is, and what he's after.A group of mismatched criminals, played to perfection by the cast, are lumped together for a crime apparently none of them were guilty of. Irritated at having their time wasted, they decide to even the score by releaving a few less than honest cops of their less than honest merchandise. This sets into motion a chain of events that will lead them to Keyser's lawyer, Kobayashi. From there, well, I don't want to ruin it for you. This film opened the same year as SEVEN, in which Kevin Spacey (then a relatively unknown character actor) played an uncredited role. This was a vehicle for Spacey, and he works it like a wind-up watch. (From here, he would go onto the equally great LA CONFIDENTIAL.) Gabriel Burns is his usual talented self, and Benicio Del Toro is hilarious as Fenster. If you're looking for a good mystery that doesn't treat the audience like idiots, this one is for you. Told in a series of present and flashback story lines, you'll have to think it out a little. It's worth it, though, in the end to know Who Is Keyser Söze?
Rating:
Summary: Top 5 Movies of All time
Review: I've owned this move in VHS, DVD, and now enhanced DVD. I don't think I've done that with any other movie in our collection. Every actor's performance, although written to be over the top, just works perfectly. You buy into the characters and there motivation so easily, they seem like weird friends that you've known forever. We've love to share this movie with people that have never seen it, just to watch their reaction and their faces light up when they put it all together. I can't praise this movie enough. Especially with the holiday season coming up, I can see no better present than a wonderfully written, seamlessly portrayed, SMART movie that your friends and loved ones will thank you for.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Kevin Spacey Movie
Review: Many twists in this clever suspense thriller as told by one of the usual suspects from a recent police line up. The 5 suspects are brought in on a trumped up stolen van charge and the story unfolds from there. Great acting and wonderful casting including the very talented Kevin Spacey, who alone makes this movie worth checking out. The story telling is in the vein of a Quinten Tarentino movie, but only slightly more conventional. If you like trying to figure out what is really going on and who done it, you will enjoy this one.
Rating:
Summary: best in class
Review: Perhaps the best suspense/crime movie ever made. A+ Plot. A+ Writing. A+ Acting. A+ Music. A+ Everything. The Godfather of its category. A true achivement of moviemaking.
Rating:
Summary: Not your usual movie
Review: A multi-layered story of rapacious greed and ambition, "Usual Suspects" puts together a great cast and a story-within-a-story plot. The Suspects include Keaton (Byrne) a disgraced ex-cop; Roger "Verbal" Kint (Spacey), a club-footed petty criminal; Hockney (Pollack) the explosives expert; McManus (Baldwin) who's something of an explosive himself and Fenster (Del Toro). I'm not sure what Fenster's role is, but given the hushed and marble-mouth tones that he speaks in, nobody else seems to know either. The story is told in flashback by Verbal after the rest are either dead or presumed dead. The film begins with the explosive destruction of a freighter in southern California. Only one other man, the freighter's horrifically burnt passenger, survives. He knows nothing of our heroes, instead ranting about "Keyser Soze". Recognizing the name of an international criminal who murders almost on whim, and connecting him to the Suspects, a federal agent (Palmintierri) who's made a career of investigating Keaton, puts Verbal on the grill, forcing Spacey's character to recount how the boys came to know each other. Gathered weeks earlier by the police as suspects or line-up fillers in the hijacking of a police truck carrying guns earmarked for destruction, the suspects (Verbal being one of the "fillers") are initially strangers, yet join together and form a plan. Released when nobody gets pinned for the truck rap, the Suspects go into business - targeting for robbery various high-level smugglers who pay to keep the police at arms length. Soon their rep brings them to the west coast, but we also learn that they had already come to the attention of Keyser Soze - by virtue of how their crimes have come at his expense. Blackmailed by Soze through his attorney, Kobayashi (Pete Posthlethwaite, looking and sounding more Indo-Pak than Japanese), the suspects reluctantly follow his orders and shoot their way into a docked freighter loaded (says Kobayashi) with a fortune in cocaine. By now, Verbal has recounted what he knows of Soze - less a man than a force of nature gone bad; a Hungarian criminal who killed his own family rather than let rivals hold them hostages against him; a mass killer who not only hunts down those who had tried to hold his family hostage, but their friends and families as well. Soze's is the name that that career criminals utter to themselves when they need something to keep them up at night. Okay, that's as far as I can go without spoiling it. Sure, you'll probably figure out the big secret within the first few minutes (once a police sketch artist is brought in, the secret will practically leap out at you). Nevertheless, the script works some great magic. The ultimate trick isn't Keyser Soze secret identity but how the story gets you to root and care for a crew of wretched, murderous and greedy losers who'd be fodder in a more upstanding story. The biggest mystery of all, when I saw it, was figuring out what kind of movie this was. I had an idea that it would be some buddy-buddy picture of good-guy criminals - a sort of "Brinks Job" for the 1990's, but the result is much more satisfying.
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