Movie Review: The Usual Suspects - A Shocking Tale Of Adventure
There are plenty of movies out there involving crime, criminals, criminal masterminds, and complicated plots that twist every which way before they finally reveal who the bad guy is. In perhaps the most critically acclaimed movie in this genre, "The Usual Suspects" stands head and shoulders above the rest, and is what all other crime movies are compared to. This is an absolute must see movie if you enjoy crime dramas that keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last.
The movie starts out with police rounding up some potential crime suspects for a small time, seemingly inconsequential crime. These small time crooks meet up for the first time in a holding cell, while they are awaiting a police lineup. One of these in the holding cell passes on a job offer from his "boss" to pull of some seemingly easy and small time crime.
When they are released without issue after the lineup, the get together to attempt to pull off this seemingly innocent crime. As they dig deeper and deeper into the nature of their business, they find that there is a criminal mastermind behind the whole thing. A mastermind of crime so soulless and ruthless that any who even glimpse who he is are immediately and ruthlessly killed.
They are told some story or legend about what he did in the old country, when a rival criminal paid him a visit. In a show of force, this rival crime lord threatened to execute his family before his eyes, in hopes of keeping him in line. This deadly killer turned out to be far too much to handle for the local crime lord. He executed his own family himself, before killing all but one of those sent to kill him. Naturally this horrible act established his reputation as the most ruthless criminal ever.
As the members of this small group get closer to closer to the real identify of the evil mastermind, the police get closer and closer to the whole setup. In a shocking race against time, the group must evade capture from the police, and must work together to avoid angering he who has hired them for the job.
But both the group, and the police are completely clueless as to the actual identify of the criminal mastermind behind all this. The shocking secret is revealed, and it is such a pleasant revelation, from a script and acting standpoint, that you will want to watch this movie again and again to see how the clues were cleverly placed along the way, down to the correct tone of voice in certain scenes. You should see this movie at the first chance you get. If you have, you should see it again. And again.