The Usual Suspects *Spoilers*

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm late, better late then never, I suppose.

So while sifting through bargain bins at Blockbuster I happened upon Goodfellas in a bin labelled '2 DVDs for $6.99' (Canada btw). I haven't seen Goodfellas either so I begin searching for an adequate partner for this deal. What I found was 'State of Play' the movie I'm sure none of you remember with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck, seriously, that was the best I could come up with to go with Goodfellas...

So I move on to other sections of the store, when I realize I forgot my football back at the 2 for $6.99 bin, when I go to retrieve it, I bend down, pick it up and staring me in the face, at the very top of the heap of movies, was The Usual Suspects. Flabbergasted at how I could have missed it the first time, I subbed it in for State of Play and off I was.

Why is this important? Just to illustrate the point that instead of just finishing The Usual Suspects about an hour ago, I could have been finishing State of Play... big difference right?

*Minor and Major Spoilers for The Usual Suspects and The Prestige begin*

Right, so onto the movie... WOW!

yeah, that's my educated opinion on this movie. Seriously, I couldn't have even possibly understood what I had been missing for so long, all this time and I had never seen it, but again, better late then never.

Right now, it's very possible, indeed very likely that I'm still seduced from the last 5 minutes of the movie what with the 'big reveal' that's making me jizz my pants like a 12 year old watching Transformers. Even with this shock factor still glazed over me, I still can't help but think that this is one of the best endings I have ever seen. period. But more on this later.

Even without the ending, the movie before these finals minutes was itself a damn fine movie with excellent story, characters, acting, just about everything. I was rooted to my seat at the complete mercy of wherever this film would take me and then the ending came and my wet dream became real.

The one thing I really want to get across in this post was it's similarity to The Prestige, one of my favorite films as mentioned previously. Not from a story standpoint, as the twist is completely different and the stories can't be compared whatsoever, but from the closing lines.

My favorite scene, surprise surprise, is Michael Caine finishing the movie with the last shot of Hugh Jackman in the water tank set to, "Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled." and the instance he finishes, the film suddenly cuts to black. end. That the most memorable scene in the movie for me, and that's partly why it's one of my favorites, because the final seconds grip you right until Chris Nolan's name appears and you realize your heart rate has increased, I found that the same thing happened in The Usual Suspects.


I somewhat saw it coming, not the twist, but that the detective would discover something from looking at the bulletin board behind the desk. While the movie was setting it up I wondered what it could possibly be. And as soon as the Quartet and Illinois came into full view I was most absorbed as I could have been, I was hanging on every word the characters said, every gesture and scene. As the movie began to set up Kevin Spacey's identity as Keyzer Sose I was almost refusing to believe it because I had already fully taken in and believed that Keaten was Keyzer Sose and it wasn't until he straightened out his walk on the sidewalk that my mind finally exploded. Now, this movie had me at hello, but then it went and finished like this in the final seconds, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And like that... he's gone." and in the instant that he begins to say he's gone, the film suddenly cuts to black and I'm left with my head spinning and my heart racing, where have I had this similar feeling before?


Maybe this point has been made before, well then I apologize for wasting time, I just had to get my thoughts down because I still feel like I've been mentally winded. Only time will tell if this movie is truly capable of joining the other 6 with my favorites, but I am definitely going to add that last line as one of my favorite quotes of all time.


P.S Kevin Pollack is badass.


Spoilers for both movies end

Comments, questions, feedback. I kinda realize now that this is pretty long and unstructured, oh well, if you do read I thank you.