Product description

The Usual Suspects (2 Disc Special Edition) [1995]

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Average customer rating: 4.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5050070007862
Label : MGM Entertainment
Manufacturer : MGM Entertainment
Publisher : MGM Entertainment
Release date : 2002-04-29
Title : The Usual Suspects (2 Disc Special Edition) [1995]
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Suitable for 18 years and over
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Original release date : 1995-08-25
Region code : 2
Running time : 102
Studio : MGM Entertainment
Theatrical releaseDate : 1995-08-16
Number of discs : 2

Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 enamoured 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, mislead) 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.co.uk Review
Bryan Singer's film noir The Usual Suspects casts a mesmerising spell, with the plot luring the viewer into ever-deeper and darker places. According to director, Singer, the premise for the film evolved from a magazine article. What does the phrase "usual suspects" actually mean, who are they and what happens when you probe their identity? Here, they are five expert criminals and a crippled con man in a line-up. The story, told via flashbacks, interrogation scenes and explosive sequences of a heist gone wrong, is a labyrinth of sub-plots and red herrings.

Kevin Spacey won a best supporting actor Oscar for his intriguing, blank-eyed turn as the crippled "Verbal" Kint. But Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollak, Stephen Baldwin and Benicio del Toro are equally fascinating as the mismatched misfits, creating hinterlands for their characters in a single gesture. Chazz Palminteri as the special agent is our main ally in solving the puzzle, but it's really a case of the blind leading the blind. Pete Postlethwaite's bizarre accent, as the sinister legal agent Kobayashi, adds its own layer of mystery to a film that earns cult status entirely on its own merits.

On the DVD: this is a dazzling two-disc set which will both please Usual Suspects aficionados and entice the uninitiated. The film itself is presented in widescreen format. The Dolby Digital surround sound quality throbs with tension so that you sense the dialogue and John Ottman's excellent, suspenseful music with your nerve endings rather than just experiencing them aurally. The original cinematic experience comes forcefully into your living room. Numerous extras include a fascinating director/screenwriter commentary (if you haven't seen the film yet, make sure this is turned off or it will wreck the suspense) and endless featurettes, each adding a layer of understanding to the film through observations from the actors, director and writer. A package that sucks you in, blows you out in pieces and still has you coming back for more, this is what special edition DVDs are all about. --Piers Ford

Customer reviews

review by: A soul doctor, so to say date: 2008-07-12 rating:

Go visit the Twin Towers
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 all he knows: he knows too much to just be an accidental witness. And the punch line is doubled with the composite picture of this fantasized criminal as seen by the other survivor who should not have survived and the criminal does not know he is still alive who has seen him very distinctly. This composite picture, a very sketchy image, is arriving on the fax machine as the cripple straightens up and gets into the car that was waiting for him outside the police station. Too late. This tactic has been used by other thrillers, but in this case it is very persuasive and the film works very well provided we do not profile the thriller-maker, otherwise we would know the end before the film ever starts.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

review by: Grumble date: 2008-05-01 rating:

SUPERB
I don't think I have ever seen a better film of this genre.

The whole film just works. It's brilliant to say the least.

I just wish I had been to see this in the cinema to see peoples reactions at the end.

Superb.... Brilliant.... BUY THIS FILM !!!!!!!!!!!

review by: date: 2008-04-29 rating:

A well crafted film
I remember the first time watching the film and not being all that impressed with it. However you really need to wach it at least twice to fully appreciate it. A worthwhile DVD as well, excellent picture and sound with quality special features.

review by: date: 2008-02-01 rating:

I was sorry when it had finished
A strange thing happened when I was watching this film. It seemed until the last twenty minutes to be going along nicely and could be categorised as an above average, rather 'noirish' heist movie which was exceptionally well conceived, crafted and very well acted. Then, the final twenty minutes started. Wow! What a superb film. It steps up a gear like no other and hits you with revelation after revelation, enigmas are revelaed and just when you think that's it, along comes another to supercede its predecessor. I was so blown away by the ending that I immediately had to watch the last twenty minutes again-something I had never done before not have I done since.

I felt such a sense of loss when the film had finished, I would never be led so willingly down the blind alleys of this film ever agin, once you know the end it stays with you for ever. ALl of this happened a long time ago, now I get enormous satisfaction with each viewing from the craftsmanship of the director (in a stunning debut)and the writer, the performances of the lead actors and the clues which present themselves so clearly on subsequent viewings.

What a film, and with the extra features on this edition this is a fantastic dvd package for one of the best heist noir movies of all time, one of th best films of the decade and one of the most rivetting films you will ever see. Nomatter how much the cost-buy it NOW!!!!!

review by: Beaker date: 2008-01-27 rating:

Remarkable, fantastic, ground-breaking.
Remarkable, fantastic, ground-breaking. This is perhaps the greatest crime thriller I have ever seen. The story is exceptional and I was glued. The acting, the casting and everything else is top quality. However, this is one of those films that needs to be watched more than once to fully understand it. This film is a hit on so many levels, the characters are fascinating, the story is intelligent and keeps you guessing to the end. Every adult should see this movie (not for the feint-hearted though).

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