Rewind Wednesday: The Usual Suspects

"What the cops never figured out, and what I know now, was that these men would never break, never lie down, never bend over for anybody. Anybody." -Verbal Kent

I'm sure we all remember that line. Well its that time again for the Rewind Wednesday this week. Today's selection is one that really gets your mind churning from beginning to end. The Usual Suspects is another movie to add to the classics. This 1995 neo-noir American film written by Christopher McQuarrie, would include an all-star cast of actors (Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, Benicio del Toro, Giancarlo Esposito, Pete Postlethwaite, Dan Hedaya, Suzy Amis) who we now see on the forefront of movies today.

Following a truck hijack in New York, five conmen are arrested and brought together for questioning. With none of them being guilty, they set out to plan a revenge operation against the police. On a high note, the operation goes well, but then the influence of a legendary mastermind criminal called Keyser Söze makes his presence known. Now it becomes apparent that each one of them has wronged Söze in some sort of way and must pay back now. The payback job leaves 27 men dead in a boat explosion, but the real question arises now: Who actually is Keyser Söze?

Can you believe The Usual Suspects was shown out of competition at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, and then initially released in few theaters ? It received favorable reviews, and was eventually given a wider release. McQuarrie won an Academy Award for the screenplay and Spacey won the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance. The film, shot on a $6 million budget, originally began as a title taken from a column in Spy magazine called "The Usual Suspects", after Claude Rains' line in Casablanca. Singer thought that it would be a good title for a film, the poster for which he and McQuarrie had developed as the first visual idea.

The Usual Suspects was well-received by most critics and it has an 89% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a 77 metascore on Metacritic. While embraced by most viewers and critics, The Usual Suspects was the subject of harsh derision by some. Roger Ebert, in a review for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four. He also includes the movie in his "most hated films" list. USA Today gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, calling it, "one of the most densely plotted mysteries in memory - though paradoxically, four-fifths of it is way too easy to predict".

However, Rolling Stone magazine praised Spacey, saying his "balls-out brilliant performance is Oscar bait all the way". Hal Hinson, in his review for the Washington Post wrote, "Ultimately, The Usual Suspects may be too clever for its own good. The twist at the end is a corker, but crucial questions remain unanswered. What's interesting, though, is how little this intrudes on our enjoyment. After the movie you're still trying to connect the dots and make it all fit - and these days, how often can we say that?" The Independent praised the film's ending: "The film's coup de grace is as elegant as it is unexpected. The whole movie plays back in your mind in perfect clarity - and turns out to be a completely different movie to the one you've been watching (rather better, in fact)".

This will always be a classic and a favorite of mine. And you already know its in the DVD collection.

And here's one more to take you home...

"After that my guess is that you will never hear from him again. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. And like that... he is gone. " -Verbal Kent

Many have said this is one of the best endings ever...