The Usual Suspects: Critic Reviews

Dense with plot intricacies, thick with atmosphere, and packed with showy roles for a hip ensemble, The Usual Suspects is fun to watch -- a celebration of cool actors having a good time playing sweaty and devious lowlifes.

This movie finally isn't anything more than an intricate feat of gamesmanship, but it's still quite something to see.

Director Bryan Singer gives his film enough surface flash to entertain future late-night cable possibilities.

After following the beckoning twists and turns, you're left trapped and more than a little disappointed for getting in so deep.

The twist at the end is a corker, but crucial questions remain unanswered. What's interesting, though, is how little this intrudes on our enjoyment.

Once again, my comprehension began to slip, and finally I wrote down: 'To the degree that I do understand, I don't care.'

I didn't believe this story for a minute, even in movie terms -- though it's less offensive than a piece of junk like Apt Pupil, Singer's subsequent feature.

A terrific cast of exciting actors socks over this absorbingly complicated yarn that's been spun in seductively slick fashion by director Bryan Singer.

Next to the steady diet of Hollywood formula, contrived plots and situations a regular moviegoer can spot a mile off, The Usual Suspects is something quite different: A movie that's smarter than you are.

After I first saw the film, I recommended it to people as an entertaining and commercial crime thriller; a standard story done very well. And then I saw it again. The movie is so much better the second time.

Lots of fun and a very handsome, widescreen production by director Bryan Singer, who co-wrote the original script with once-and-future partner (and ex-private detective) Christopher McQuarrie.

The Usual Suspects is an accomplished synthesis of noir elements and, as such, is an entertaining entry to the genre.

The Usual Suspects is the freshest, funniest and scariest crime thriller to come along since Pulp Fiction.

But like a tale from the Arabian Nights, told for the sheer pleasure of storytelling, this elegant puzzle not only enjoys showing off, it also has something to show.

Anything but usual, Singer's movie is pretty damn near untouchable. Next to this, most other crime films feel petty.

Screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie's tough-guy dialogue and Bryan Singer's crisp direction give the ensemble cast every opportunity to shine, and they do.

Bryan Singer's poker face is worthless at best.

Stylishly made but narratively hollow and dramatically derivative, Bryan Singer's puzzle-homage to Tarantino is nonetheless well-directed and well-acted, particularly by Kevin Spacey who won a Supporting Oscar.

To many young film buffs, this is where film history begins and ends.

McQuarrie's script is a scurrying lizard of a yarn, scaly, swift and difficult to follow.

Singer creates a classy, thought-provoking mystery that is pleasingly old-fashioned and absolutely modern in the sly, slightly self-conscious play it makes with myth and methods of storytelling.

If ever a movie got extra points for a strong, unexpected conclusion it's The Usual Suspects.

Not to be believed for a NYC second.

No one is out of place or out of line here, and that is what makes the final payoff so sweet.

One of the most ingenious, unpredictable films in recent memory... and one of the biggest cheats.