"The Usual Suspects" (1995) - Director Bryan Singer's Crime Mystery about the Legendary Keyser Söze

[DonRocks]

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

*** DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU PLAN ON SEEING THE FILM ***

I sent DIShGo an email, with the instructions *not* to open it until she was finished watching "The Usual Suspects," which she finished last night.

The email said this:

"In my entire life, I have never felt more manipulated or cheated than I did from this movie. The ending made THE ENTIRE MOVIE IRRELEVANT. It could have been *anything*, depending on what they chose to put on the wall. It was insulting, it was bullshit, and it was a complete waste of the viewer's time - yet, all the sheep say what a great movie it is. Yeah, right. Bullshit."

---

I'm going to say one other thing, and I may as well say it here: I am *so damned sick* of these wannabe film critics (and I fully realize that I *am* a wannabe film critic) throwing around the word "noir" as if every crime-related movie since 1940 falls into that category - these people are dumb as hell, and don't know what they're talking about, but boy, they sure think they sound smart by using that word. SPARE ME!

Sorry.

[DIShGo]

Don't waste your time on this film! 

[DonRocks]

2 hours ago, DIShGo said:

Don't waste your time on this film! 

Well that was a lot more generous than your email response!

"I am SO glad you said that. I hated this movie. It was boring and tedious and the attempt at a "twist" ending was completely manipulative. Total b.s. One of my least favorite movies ever and a total waste of time."

Here's an interesting question. I've read two reviews that compared the "twist ending" (notice we keep putting that in quotes) to "It was all just a dream!" - In other words, a completely lazy way out, and a movie that was essentially written backwards, with nothing at all having any importance. 

My response: "So was The Wizard of Oz." So, what's wrong with "It was all just a dream?" There's something about it that seems very wrong to me, but for whatever reason, it *worked* in "The Wizard of Oz," and it worked *well* - maybe because the fact that it *was* a dream was an integral part of the movie and the moral of the whole story?

[DIShGo]

53 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Well that was a lot more generous than your email response!

"I am SO glad you said that. I hated this movie. It was boring and tedious and the attempt at a "twist" ending was completely manipulative. Total b.s. One of my least favorite movies ever and a total waste of time."

Here's an interesting question. I've read two reviews that compared the "twist ending" (notice we keep putting that in quotes) to "It was all just a dream!" - In other words, a completely lazy way out, and a movie that was essentially written backwards, with nothing at all having any importance. 

My response: "So was The Wizard of Oz." So, what's wrong with "It was all just a dream?" There's something about it that seems very wrong to me, but for whatever reason, it *worked* in "The Wizard of Oz," and it worked *well* - maybe because the fact that it *was* a dream was an integral part of the movie and the moral of the whole story?

You said it all in your summary. I was just putting an exclamation point on it. 

I read a post that compared the ending of this film to "Inception." That's not a fair comparison.

I like films with endings that are open to interpretation."Life of Pi" is a good example.

Sometimes I feel cheated by the "it was just a dream" explanation, but occasionally it works, as it does in "The Wizard of Oz." Flying monkeys and witches and houses, a talking lion and a talking tin man - of course it was a dream. And all of the things that influenced Dorothy's dream are shown in the beginning of the film. This wasn't the case with "The Usual Suspects."

[DonRocks]

I was going to make this a separate post, and still might if there's any interest, but for now, I want to comment on "twist endings." In particular, this article ticked me off a little bit when they mentioned (in "The Usual Suspects" commentary) that "it's become a badge of honor for snooty assholes who like to brag about figuring out endings before anyone else does."

*** SPOILERS FOLLOW ABOUT "THE SIXTH SENSE" ***

It's *very* rare when I guess an ending, because I try to get engrossed in a film and *not* guess the ending, because I want to have fun! But what about when the "twist ending" slaps you so damned hard in the face that you can't *not* guess it? Five minutes into "Sixth Sense," Bruce Willis was shot in the gut, and was lying on his bed, bleeding to death, with his wife in hysterics - from what I remember, she doesn't even bother to call an ambulance - this guy has *minutes* to live.

Okay, so like "Psycho," the star dies at the beginning - it shocked the hell out of me, I must admit. Then, what is it, three years later or something? He's back. And I was completely baffled at that point, and remained baffled until Haley Joel Osment said, "I see dead people."

*That* is when I said to myself, okay, he's going to develop a relationship with a dead Bruce Willis, and something will happen down the road. *Now* it makes sense ... but ... within a few minutes after that, I realized that they weren't going to reveal that Bruce Willis was dead, and a horror crept over me. 'Oh my God,' I thought to myself, is *this* going to be a twist ending?! And I endured, and endured, and endured, for about ninety minutes. I didn't "guess" anything - I don't see how it's humanly possible to have assumed anything else.

So does this make me a "snooty asshole?!"

[Al Dente]