The Usual Suspects (1995) Rated R, 1 Hour 48 Minutes
Aight yall lets get straight to it but 1st
WARNING! This movie is extremely Gangsta if your veins pump straight up sugary kool-aid packets go on ahead and pop this one out of your DVD player because this movie is off the chain with it.
Right off the bat we start off in the action things are blowing up, the musical score is booming in your ear and a dude who we meet a few minutes later gets capped off screen (Maybe?) The Usual Suspects introduces the viewer to the main characters and puts you in the action with Kevin Spacey narrating.
Five known crooks are rounded up by the Po-po for questioning about a truck full of gun parts that was hijacked in Queens, New York. (Already so Gangsta) No one gives anything up because they all know the cardinal rule of the streets: Snitches Get Stitches. This mystery/crime/action hybrid has 3 mysteries being unraveled at once
1st Who hijacked the truck full of guns?
2nd Who blew up the boat and killed a bunch of people in the beginning of the movie?
3rd Who the hell is Keyser Soze and why is everybody saying his name so much?
All of these mysteries are solved in about 100 minutes of well written dialogue, flashbacks and epic unpredictable action. The movie is an orgasm of goodness you won't be able to guess who did what or why or when or where. This a film you have to see multiple times and even if you know the answer to Mystery #3 (Because of Amy Schumer's enormously loud mouth in that movie about her being a sex addict) there is still so much more to this movie. Let me just say before I dive into the next section, watch this movie, then watch it again and marvel at its greatness because you won't catch everything the first time. This movie is absolutely brilliant. Ok let me put on my flippers, snorkel and goggles real quick.
Because it is time for......
and in case you don't know what that means
(YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!)
Aight lets get comfortable we in the Spoiler Zone now.
This movie has the type of dialogue that can only be described as BAMF (Look it up). Me personally I don't need a love story in my movies and this movie accommodates me perfectly. Straight up the two love interests have the best dialogue ever
Female Love Interest: I love you
Male Love Interest: Smokes Cigarette........uh what?
She plays a bigger part later but for the most part that's it with all the lovey dovey cute and cudely bubbley stuff. These guys get locked up, let out and rob some dirty cops real quick as a big fat F-U to the police that jammed them up. The characters in this movie avoid the crappy stereotypes of the usual movies 1st we have Todd Hockney a mechanic who is good with explosives and he doesn't care about anybody. Then we have McManus the crazy ass kicker of the group this guy is down for whatever and he keeps the steel in his hands like Wolverine (Translation: 'He be shooting people') After that there is Fenster played by Benicio Del Toro his dialogue is short and hilarious because of his accent but he gets it in too. The semi-main character Dean Keaton a former dirty cop who has gone clean but is pulled back into the game brings a lot to the story and functions as one of the deeper characters in the movie. Finally there is Verbal Kent played by Kevin Spacey aka Lex Luthor aka my main man Francis J. Underwood. Spacey kills it as the crippled mastermind who is not supposed to be as gangsta as he actually is.
Yeah these guys aren't lovable teddy bears they are pretty intense cut throat guys who are played extremely well. Each one feels different in their own way and yet they are all motivated by their natural instinct to break the law.(Seriously this could have all been avoided) I don't condone crime in any form but these guys make it look......pretty damn scary but in a good way. When they pull off their heists they always get creative with it but never too synchronized which makes it more fun. I hate when plans work out too well in movies these guys plans always have a little twist and even when it goes smooth there is always more to it.
This movie has perfect pacing and does a phenomenal job of raising the stakes. Before I get to that let me continue to gush about how unpredictable this movie is. One scene that really stands out to me is when the crew meet a contact named Redfoot, Dean Keaton pulls him aside and lets him know straight up that he killed one of this guy's friends in prison. In most movies this would have been a whole “Thing” like when you look at a girl's butt but your with your girl and you get caught and have to explain why your eyes are straight up foolish but your heart is in the right place. In most movies it would have gone one of two ways, Keaton would have kept it a secret and they would have found out later or he would have killed the dude and explained it later BUT NO he tells him straight up and they respect each other for it. Instead of it being a gigantic OMG WHY YOU DID THAT TO MY HOMIE!? Type of deal it really just adds to the character of Dean Keaton and just gives you a clue to how much of a Certified Gangsta he is. Little things like that set this film apart from the usual garbage.
The scene where the characters find out who robbed the original truck full of guns from the beginning is subtle but hilarious. Its so perfectly acted that I always like to rewind and watch the different characters reactions. Why? Because in most movies the characters would have been like “Man why you do that man? This is your fault man you suck man” (I imagine everyone talks like this but in a nasally voice) but because they are in so deep and because they all would have done it for the right price and because they have already shed blood and whole lot of bullets for each other its not even a big deal to them. Things like this are why this movie is the real freaking deal.
But wait there's more!
The Action sequences are intense everybody is strapped up with the type of hardware that would make Call of Duty blush. Machine guns, pistols, sniper rifles, bombs oh man this is what I like to see in a movie, well done action with heavy artillery and there are plenty of head shots and blat-blat-blat-blats to go around. Also dual-wielding pistols has never been so realistic these guys hold two guns and don't transform into terminators of mass destruction they actually have to aim both guns and use their shots wisely which is so foreign to most action movies that it makes this movie a few cuts above the rest. Make no mistake dudes are getting blown out of their shoes without clues up in here so take cover when them thangs come out because these guys take no prisoners and it is marvelous. The final action scene is mind blowing. If you have played Grand Theft Auto 3 you might recognize the premise here. A boat full of drugs, an army of heavily armed goons, a guy with a sniper rifle and some fireworks for the party. In the final scene they go all out and bring the story full circle as the viewer is brought back to the first scene and gets to see every emptied clip that brought the (anti)heroes to this point. Trust me bros and sisters this movie brings it in spades there is no slowing down, no boring time wasting conversation, no time for love stories here its all well thought out action and dialogue.
I give this a solid 10 Dual-wielded Pistols out of 10 (Extra points for turning pistols sideways before popping off)
*On a side note I found it very interesting that all of the criminals in this movie are white/european and the only brotha in the movie is a detective. (Played by Giancarlo Esposito aka OG Gus Fring from Breaking Bad)
Go Watch This Movie Now! Or like don't.
Aight Peace,
I'm gonna go play Grand Theft Auto 3 on my iPad because that game rocks and its on iOS now.
