The Usual Suspects

Year: 1995 Rating: R Overall Evaluation: 7.5 Significance Suppositions Story Style 7.0 / 10 10.0 / 10 10.0 / 10 6.0 / 10 Click HERE for evaluation criteria.

Style

Rated R for violence and quite a bit of cussing. No nudity. Not terribly distracting style elements but hard to take for a sensitive listener. Excellent acting, etc.

Story

The story is fantastic. I must admit that I love heist movies so I am probably biased, but there can be no doubt that the script is amazing. Basically the story revolves around a group of thieves who are sort of tricked into a performing a heist by a master criminal. It is told in flashback fashion by one of the thieves as he is interrogated in a police station. Brilliant twist at the end.

Suppositions

There are really no reality issues here and the movie is very realistic. The criminal world is not overly glorified which is nice as well.

Significance

There is not a whole lot of "message" going on here - except perhaps how easy it is to let our assumptions and attitudes can increase our vulnerability to being fooled. It also reflects the difficulty of "going legit" from crime and the moral struggles involved.