Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9786304493731
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 6304493738
Label: Polygram Video
Manufacturer: Polygram Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Polygram Video
Release Date: June 24, 1997
Running Time: 106 minutes
Sales Rank: 34590
Studio: Polygram Video
Theatrical Release Date: August 16, 1995
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
Ever since this convoluted thriller dazzled audiences and critics in 1995 and won an Oscar for Christopher McQuarrie's twisting screenplay, The Usual Suspects has continued to divide movie lovers into opposite camps. While a lot of people take great pleasure from the movie's now-famous central mystery (namely, 'Who is Keyser Söze?'), others aren't so easily impressed by a movie that's too enamored of its own cleverness to make much sense. After all, what are we to make of a final scene that renders the entire movie obsolete? Half the fun of The Usual Suspects is the debate it provokes and the sheer pleasure of watching its dynamic cast in action, led (or should we say, misled) by Oscar winner Kevin Spacey as the club-footed con man who recounts the saga of enigmatic Hungarian mobster Keyser Söze. Spacey's in a band of thieves that includes Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, and Benicio Del Toro, all gathered in a plot to steal a large shipment of cocaine. The story is told in flashback as a twisted plot being described by Spacey's character to an investigating detective (Chazz Palmintieri), and The Usual Suspects is enjoyable for the way it keeps the viewer guessing right up to its surprise ending. Whether that ending will enhance or extinguish the pleasure is up to each viewer to decide. Even if it ultimately makes little or no sense at all, this is a funny and fiendish thriller, guaranteed to entertain even its vocal detractors. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com:
Ever since this convoluted thriller dazzled audiences and critics in 1995 and won an Oscar for Christopher McQuarrie's twisting screenplay, The Usual Suspects has continued to divide movie lovers into opposite camps. While a lot of people take great pleasure from the movie's now-famous central mystery (namely, 'Who is Keyser Söze?'), others aren't so easily impressed by a movie that's too enamored of its own cleverness to make much sense. After all, what are we to make of a final scene that renders the entire movie obsolete? Half the fun of The Usual Suspects is the debate it provokes and the sheer pleasure of watching its dynamic cast in action, led (or should we say, misled) by Oscar winner Kevin Spacey as the club-footed con man who recounts the saga of enigmatic Hungarian mobster Keyser Söze. Spacey's in a band of thieves that includes Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, and Benicio Del Toro, all gathered in a plot to steal a large shipment of cocaine. The story is told in flashback as a twisted plot being described by Spacey's character to an investigating detective (Chazz Palmintieri), and The Usual Suspects is enjoyable for the way it keeps the viewer guessing right up to its surprise ending. Whether that ending will enhance or extinguish the pleasure is up to each viewer to decide. Even if it ultimately makes little or no sense at all, this is a funny and fiendish thriller, guaranteed to entertain even its vocal detractors. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The American thriller of the nineties
Such films like this should be enshrined in museums, simply due to the fact it destroyed the entire genre of mystery films. While this film was unique and captivating, no other mystery will ever accomplish this sort of cult status, single handedly shaping a genre. While most mysteries try to shock you too often with twists and even more twists, it turns out to be overkill. This film encompassed such ideas with flair and originality, which is probably the reason Brian Singer is sticking to sci-fi action films. Only Memento and The Game are the only recent mystery movies worthy enough to stand beside this film. Sadly, Singer has somewhat sold out by doing the X-Men movies, but I guess trying to make films like this would be too taxing. This film will always bring a smile to my face when I watch it with someone who hasn't seen this movie. A good viewing every time I watch it, the new special edition DVD is awesome.
Rating:  - Maybe a little too usual...
I will say that `The Usual Suspects' is entertaining, because to say otherwise would be a bold faced lie. I won't say that it was deserving of all the hype it received, because to say that would also be a bold faced lie. No, `The Usual Suspects' is a decent crime thriller that proves to have a `twist' ending that becomes more and more predictable as you start putting pieces together. The script is probably the best and worst thing about this movie. When you look at all the thought that went into constructing the plot (or lack there of) you can't help but be taken aback by the effort put into it, but when all is said and done the twist at the end seems very rudimentary and the overall concept of the film lacks that freshness that could have been achieved had the envelope been pushed a little further.
The film begins with a bang, or an explosion to be more precise. A cargo ship goes up in flames and next thing you know we are brought back to how it all began, with five men standing in a lineup. These five men include criminals Michael McManus, Fred Fenster and Todd Hockey as well as one time cop Dean Keaton and small time crook Roger Kint, also known as Verbal (because he talks to much). After the men meet the wheels are set in motion for something much more complicated (and possibly fabricated) than anything they've been involved with before; all of which boils down to a man named Keyser Soze.
The film is told in flashbacks by Verbal as he is interrogated after the ... Read More
Rating:  - Things aren't always what they seem
The final climactic moment in The Usual Suspects is the vehicle by which this movie is mostly either worshipped or despised bitterly. Depending on how you see it, we either feel cheated about such a bizarre, seemingly impossible ending, or amazed at the curve ball thrown at us, under our noses the entire time. We may even wonder if this ending is proper etiquette, or "fair game, for a suspense to employ. Some may have seen it coming, but to those who didn't, it makes for one great surprise.
As odd as it may sound, I don't think that you can judge this movie on acting alone. Sure, Kevin Spacey does an exceptional job as Verbal Kint, who is interrogated by Detective Kujan. And Gabriel Byrnne does a commendable performance as Keating, a corrupt cop supposedly trying to steer right, but who gets back into the mix. Some of the performances aren't fantastic, but this is one time where I don't think they have to be. The method of getting to the story's climax is what "makes" this suspense fantastic. With the use of going back in forth in time, from the present in the detective's office where Kint is telling his story, to the past, where we not only learn about the five thugs who decide to the take the big job for Keyser Soze, to learning about each one of the five. There are some plot events that you will naturally look back to as "aha" moments. You can credit the screen writers for coming up with this; a creative job of making this work, which usually doesn't work in movies, or ends up sloppy. ... Read More
Rating: - When virtual reality becomes ficrional
It is not a recent film, indeed. The Twin Towers are still standing. We are entering the profiling era and it was tempting for criminals to return the favor, though they have always done that. They here profile the police and their investigative methods. If you satisfy the police's way of thinking you will go through their net with no difficulty. You just have to convince the cop that a certain criminal does not exist, that this criminal projects you in some kind of legend or saga, is a boogeyman under the bed or in the closet. If the cops are convinced that this boogeyman is a pure collective invention, some folklore in another word, they will just shrug their shoulders and consider the one who is telling the story is, like all the others, haunted or possessed by a phantasm. And it works. He is the only survivor, or nearly, and he convinces them that his criminal persona is a myth. They are dubious, dubitative, skeptical and many other things, but they cannot imagine you are that myth, that criminal and that you are fooling them massively. To play on the impossibility for these cops to believe such a story can exist is your best diversion, disguise. They are ready to buy a lot but not that someone who is a coward, a weak person, a subservient non-entity, what's more a cripple, can be that ruthless, pitiless and unwavering mastermind of crime. Of course the punch line of the film is that the cop realizes he has been fooled because this cripple being the mastermind is the only explanation why he knows ... Read More
Rating: - Great movie...or Greatest movie
What can you say about the Usual Suspects that hasn't already been said by a hundred other reviewers. It's a great movie and if you haven't seen it then you must buy a copy right away. It is a must see film. Why not rent it you ask? Because this is a movie that you will want to see over and over again. It's one of those films that gets lodged in your unconscious and never quite goes away. You have to watch it at least twice to really appreciate it. I was impressed by the bluray transfer of this film. It really has never looked or sounded better. I am however quite disappointed with the lack of extras. If you are expecting extras for the film sadly this one has none. If you are a fan buy it. If you are new to this film buy two. One for you and one for your best friend.
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