**_Who IS Keyser Söze? Who freakin' cares?_** Released in 1995 and directed by Bryan Singer, "The Usual Suspects" is a crime drama/mystery about five thugs who decide to team up and get revenge on the police (Keven Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Steve Baldwin, Keven Pollak and Benicio Del Toro). After their successful operation, the five are manipulated by the legendary criminal Keyser Söze into taking a much riskier gig. One is captured and he's interrogated by the police (Chazz Palminteri & Giancarlo Esposito). The big question is: Who IS Keyser Söze? Pete Postlethwaite is on hand as Söze's right-hand man while Suzy Amis plays the babe of one of the thugs. This is a "twist ending" flick and, honestly, the film is too reliant on it. The whole movie is just "wait for the twist," it isn't actually that entertaining to sit through. In fact, most of the dialog is pretty boring; and only had some value in the end. Moreover, the main characters are just foul-mouthed, tough-guy low-lifes, although Spacey's character is somewhat interesting. As such, it's next to impossible to care about them. Let 'em all kill each other for all I care. Yes, the ending is clever in some ways, but everything that goes on up to that point isn't really worth enduring. As far as the twist goes, I was able to pinpoint the identity of the mystery man down to two people; and I was right. But there are some interesting details to the twist that I doubt anyone could figure out without first knowing the ending and then re-watching the flick. But, after watching, I'm not interested in seeing it again. The story and the characters aren't worth it. The film didn't make me care enough to watch again. Filmmakers must understand that, for a movie to be enduring, it has to be about the journey not the destination. And, for me, the convoluted journey in "The Usual Suspects" is just dull and laborious. If the characters were worthy and I cared about them I might be more interested, but that's not the case. Then there's something that I experienced a couple of times while observing the five main guys babble back and forth: I had the overwhelming sense that these were just actors playing 'hip' tough-tawkin' hooligans rather than the characters they were supposed to be. This is never a good sign. I can't believe the high rating this movie has on IMDb; it's seriously overrated. The film runs 106 minutes and was shot in the Los Angeles area and New York City. GRADE: C- ***SPOILER ALERT*** I want to emphasize that this review does not criticize the film based on pretending to "know the twist all along" (as stated above, I was able to figure out who the mystery man likely was, but not the other details). The problem is that the entire movie is based around listening to a guy make up a bunch of stuff. Gee, so all we really know is there was a ship that got torched and Kevin Spacey's character doesn't really have a limp. Okay, thanks for wasting my time with everything else. Great storytelling (rolling my eyes).

A true masterpiece of the crime genre! Five usual suspects are rounded up by the police to take part in an identity parade following a New York heist. It's clear that they had nothing to do with it, but when pitched together decide that they will avenge themselves on the NYPD. Their scheme progresses well until the intervention of international super-criminal "Keyser Söze" via his debonaire but menacing agent "Mr. Kobayashi" (a superb Pete Posthlethwaite) and soon it becomes clear that the police are not the only people who are the targets here. It's told in a clever, retrospective, narrative style with some great performances from Kevin Spacey and Gabriel Byrne that leaves us pondering just who is "Söze" and to deal with an ending that you"ll never forget!

SUPERNATURAL THRILLER Director Singer and writer McQuarrie won't admit that it's a supernatural thriller, and insist it's just the goofy Hollywood movie it appears to be at first, but a few viewings will let you know that it is indeed a supernatural thriller. The story centers around five criminals who think they are gods, and therein lies the first clue to this being a sueprnatural thriller. Also, one of the men, Keaton, played by a Judd Hirsch look alike named Gabriel Byrne, is making a deal, along with his lawyer girlfriend, with some men in a high level restaurant. Upon a few viewings, you will realize that these men are not what they seem, because the lady lawyer eventually is seen making a "deal with the devil". The "devil" is known to the five men as a character called "Kaiser". The allusions to Caesar (which the word "kaiser" comes from) is a biblical reference to a supernatural evil. You will find out who the devil is when you realize that the biblical devil is incapable of telling the truth, and so everything he says is a lie. The five criminals all believe they can be "better devils". One of the five is actually a stand in for the female lawyer, for reasons you will know if you watch the film.