The Usual Suspects (1995)
Directed by Bryan Singer
Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor – leaving few survivors. Verbal lures his interrogators with an incredible story of the crime lord's almost supernatural prowess.
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What critics compared The Usual Suspects to
It’s a blatant Michael Mann knock-off, homaging Heat to the point of borderline plagiarism, and its complicated heist plot has shades of films like Inside Man and The Usual Suspects.
The execution in these moments is thrilling, although muddied by a final plot twist that slavishly apes “The Usual Suspects.”
Finally, there's a twist ending that makes the one in The Usual Suspects seem credible by comparison.
But there’s another movie whose influence hovers over this one: Bryan Singer’s “The Usual Suspects.”
Time has not been kind to Gudegast’s film: Den of Thieves is such a dumb misunderstanding of the genres in which it plays, such a loud, interminable shart of unmitigated machismo, such a heavy-handed rip-off of Heat and The Usual Suspects and even Ocean’s Eleven (and maybe even The Fast and the Furious, but for scumbags) that it feels anachronistic on arrival, the kind of melodramatic, pulpy studio action flick that doesn’t get made anymore because it shouldn’t.
“Den of Thieves” may not be as moody as “To Live and Die in L.A.” or as clever as “The Usual Suspects,” but it works well on its own terms.
From "Swimming with Sharks" to "L.A. Confidential," "The Usual Suspects" to "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," Spacey was as deadly and dazzling as a cobra.
It's a cool concept, with equally cool Kevin Spacey ("The Usual Suspects," "Superman Returns") cast as the professor-turned-blackjack coach, who hatches the plan to use his job at MIT to recruit the most promising minds on campus for his underground team of brainy hipsters.
The Outfit yearns to become the next clever crime movie in the vein of The Usual Suspects (1995), complete with a finale that doesn’t so much blow one’s mind as arrive at the inevitable conclusion.
I feel the same about “Saltburn,” which gives us a big “Usual Suspects” reveal in the third act that won’t be a surprise to anyone paying attention.
…in which Fennell apparently felt compelled to spell everything out in case her audience did not get it — à la The Usual Suspects (1995).
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Bohemian Rhapsody’s original director, Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, a handful of X-Men movies), was fired near the end of filming, allegedly because he stopped showing up and clashed with the cast and crew, notably Malek.
As Mercury he has a feline energy, manic but composed, wide-eyed with a mischievous tint – and in any other hands he may have fared better, but director Bryan Singer (“X-Men”, “The Usual Suspects”) wasn’t remotely up to the task.
El filme no refleja en pantalla ninguna de las tribulaciones que llevaron al despido del director Bryan Singer (“X-Men Apocalypse”, “The Usual Suspects”) antes de que la fotografía principal fuera completada, ni cuenta con los despliegues épicos de la composición musical de Queen que le da nombre a la película.
Directed by Bryan Singer, known for “The Usual Suspects” and the “X-Men” series, “Bohemian Rhapsody” touches on all of the above themes in the same perfunctory way that it trots out the familiar tropes of a "Behind the Music" special — sex and drugs, creative squabbles, ego kicks and business conflicts, even the specter of a Yoko Ono in a mustache breaking up the band.
Forget about the film’s behind-the-scenes travails which resulted in the firing of director Bryan Singer ( The Usual Suspects , X-Men ) just weeks before production wrapped and the handing of the project over to Dexter Fletcher for completion.
Director Bryan Singer, known for the X-Men franchise and The Usual Suspects , was fired by 20th Century Fox.
Taking a cue from The Usual Suspects, the film anchors its abundant ingenuity in crisp, somewhat abstracted relationships, that is to say, impressive performances by respected actors (one payoff involves Schlomo and the Boss in the same room, at long last, such that Gandhi and Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris might throw down verbally).
The reasons for his "What, me worry?" quips and sheepish grins become apparent as the film shifts from glib-noir black comedy to Shakespearean vengeance in the key of "The Usual Suspects."
I had problems with " The Usual Suspects ," but at least I didn't see the last scene coming.
It's not quite "The Usual Suspects" or "House of Games," but then what is?
Hartnett, whose charisma is firmly established with this film, plays Slevin Kelevra, one of those names that will stay with you the way The Usual Suspects' Keyser Soze did a decade ago.
Lucky Number Slevin tries to be more than it is, something between The Usual Suspects and Pulp Fiction.
Even its casting of Steven Berkoff as the gangster, instead of a rent-a-villain like Bill Nighy or Terence Stamp , is a clue that Henckel von Donnersmarck, working from a script by Christopher McQuarrie (" The Usual Suspects ") and Julian Fellowes (" Gosford Park "), wasn't interested in cookie-cutter cat-and-mouse tricks.
A screenplay by an Oscar-winning supergroup, consisting of von Donnersmarck, Christopher McQuarrie ( The Usual Suspects ) and Julian Fellowes ( Gosford Park ), can't quite make it all believable.
So, one could easily imagine that this picture -- which was, after all, directed by the highly acclaimed man behind " The Lives of Others ," Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck , and written in part by Christopher McQuarrie, who's also partially responsible for the clever " The Usual Suspects " -- might have started off as one thing and got so dumbed down in the executive "notes" that it became something wholly other, and rather awful.
Given von Donnersmarck’s obvious talent behind the camera, the fact that the screenwriting team also include Oscar winners Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), and the combined wattage and eccentricity of stars Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, you wouldn’t expect The Tourist to be anything less than intriguing, if not scintillating.
Von Donnersmarck shares credit for the appallingly lackluster script with Christopher McQuarrie ("The Usual Suspects") and Julian Fellowes ("Gosford Park").
But von Donnersmarck and his fellow Oscar-winning screenwriters (Christopher McQuarrie of "The Usual Suspects" and Julian Fellowes of "Gosford Park") run seriously out of inspiration, perhaps an hour or so in.
And Fight Club is one of the most famous of all—its legendary twist right up there with The Usual Suspects , The Sixth Sense , and Memento .
In that way it reminds me of "The Usual Suspects," although this movie has a lot more energy and moves much faster than that one did.
I believe Fight Club will retain its cult status for years to come, mostly because it stands as a beacon for a period of filmmaking during the late 1990s which boasted a well of new-thinking, perspective-altering films and filmmakers (along with films such as Seven , The Usual Suspects , The Sixth Sense , Memento , etc.).
Like The Matrix or The Usual Suspects , you’re now aware of what’s going on, and are looking for the clues.
The Game (starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn) is the best movie to mess with your mind since The Usual Suspects.
Like The Usual Suspects or Fincher's own Seven, this is one of those movies that's so tightly written and densely plotted, it leaves no room for error ... or viewer queries.
Normally, I'm not a fan of this school of storytelling, which seems sorta lazy to me -- The Usual Suspects fell back on a similar one-twist gimmick in 1995, and Joe Eszterhas has used it repeatedly, to my great irritation (Jagged Edge, Basic Instinct, and Sliver).
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If the 2013 original was a magic/illusionist take on The Usual Suspects , the sequel is a free-wheeling Ocean’s Eleven homage.
To paraphrase The Usual Suspects, an infinitely superior magic trick of a movie: The greatest trick Hollywood ever pulled was convincing the world that magicians are cool.
It’s a memory-narrated structure that superficially recalls that of The Usual Suspects .
"Slumdog Millionaire" is "The Usual Suspects" meets "It’s a Wonderful Life," with a strong dose of 21st century Charles Dickens.
The interrogation episodes bristle with the psychological gamesmanship of The Usual Suspects, and the bits from the televised broadcast thrill like a live sports event.