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Dom Robinson reviews

Special Edition

Five criminals. One line up. No coincidence.

Distributed by

MGM

Cert:
Cat.no: 19899 DVD
Running time: 102 minutes
Year: 1995
Pressing: 2002
Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 32 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English, French
Subtitles: English, French, Dutch
Widescreen: 2.35:1
16:9-enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: No
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: £22.99
Extras: Four Featurettes, Bryan Singer's Gag Reel, Taking Out The Usual Suspects: Interviews & Outtakes, Deleted Scenes, Trailers, TV Spots, Two Audio Commentaries

Director:

Bryan Singer

Apt Pupil, Public Access, The Usual Suspects, X-Men, X2

Producer:

Bryan Singer & Michael McDonnel

Screenplay:

Christopher McQuarrie

Public Access

Music :

John Ottman

Cast :

McManus: Stephen Baldwin
Keaton: Gabriel Byrne
Fenster: Benicio Del Toro
Hockney: Kevin Pollak
Verbal: Kevin Spacey
Agent David Kujan: Chazz Palminteri
Kobayashi: Pete Postlethwaite
Edie Finneran: Suzy Amis
Jack Baer: Giancarlo Esposito
Jeff Rabin: Dan Hedaya

The Usual Suspects tells the story of five criminals brought together in a framed line-up, with 27 bodies turning up in Long Beach Habour and a pot of money worth $91 million. There's a terrified witness dying in hospital, who can't say too much but mentions the name "Keyser Soze". Is he a mysterious criminal overlord with a reign of terror, or the devil himself? Agent David Kujan is hell-bent on unraveling the truth.

This film proved itself to be one of the few great films of 1995, winning Kevin Spacey the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, with both an Oscar and a BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay going to Christopher McQuarrie.

Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite, right) lays down the plan.

If you're after a film with strong acting, then you couldn't do better than this one. The five men lined-up to be stitched-up Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Pollak and Kevin Spacey each have their own character to play, but it's Spacey as the crippled Verbal Kint, known as Verbal because he talks too much...and usually to the wrong people, who shines through as the best and deserved his Oscar. He also starred in Clint Eastwood's Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil and should have won another Oscar for his perfect performance in Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential.

Chazz Palminteri is also very good as Agent Kujan, the detective in charge of getting to the truth of the matter, with good support from fellow detectives Dan Hedaya and Giancarlo Esposito. Finally, the ubiquitous Pete Postlethwaite appears as Kobayashi, the man who brings the chance of a lifetime to the famous five, tempting them with the aforementioned $91 million offer.

Kevin Spacey goes on trial for
crimes against decent films after K-PAX.

The film was originally released on DVD by Polygram in 1998, with a fullscreen transfer, which was a shame as it looked terrific in its original 2.35:1 ratio, even thought it was shot in the Super-35 format so in the main, the matte ('those black bars' to the uninitiated) could be opened up to reveal more picture above and below the usual widescreen image, without losing much picture information, if any, at the sides. This still resulted in a couple of scenes where a pan-and-scan shot reared its ugly head, one being at the start of chapter 11 (on that DVD, but 19 on this one) with Chazz Palminteri sitting on one side of his office and Kevin Spacey on the other, but the image panned from right to left as Dan Hedaya enters the office stage-left behind Spacey.

Thankfully, this Special Edition rights the wrongs and gives us the 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer we wanted all along, looking crisp and clear with only a handful of minor specks on the print.

The sound comes across very clear on this disc, with Dolby Digital 5.1 (English and French) used mainly to set the tone for such a dark thriller, plus more active use in scenes where Verbal gives a description what happened when Keyser Soze found intruders at home and a loud explosion on a boat.

In addition to the much-improved picture and sound quality over the original release, the extras on this special edition also excel, beginning with a two-part featurette totalling 50 minutes, Deposing The Usual Suspects, containing film clips and plenty of chat from cast and crew members about the film. An 18-minute featurette, Keyser Soze: Lie or Legend, goes behind the hidden legend whose name was borne from a man called Keyser Sume (pronounced Su-may), who was the boss of writer Christopher Quarrie when he worked at a law firm. Note that you must watch the film before these featurettes since they contain plenty of plot spoilers.

Introduction to The Usual Suspects is a 6½-minute mini-featurette that, unlike the above, was made at the time of the film, but doesn't tell you much about the film and is more like what you'd expect to see on Box Office America. The final mini-featurette is Heisting Cannes with The Usual Suspects (4 mins) as the cast and director attend the event, with comments dropped in from present-day thoughts.

Bryan Singer's Gag Reel is a five-minute blooper reel, there's a 17-minute interview with film editor and composer John Ottman, a one-minute piece about an apartment scene as Kevin Spacey pays a visit to Gabriel Byrne in Bryan Singer introduces Kevin Spacey and Friend; and Interviews Outtakes (3 mins) show the latter during the former and descends into a discussion about why the Jaws two-hour documentary with outtakes only made it onto the laserdisc and not the DVD release.

Five Deleted Scenes are included, all introduced by John Ottman, most of which wouldn't make a great deal of difference to the film if put back in. Then comes an International trailer (2 mins, 16:9 anamorphic), US Trailer (2 mins, 2.35:1 anamorphic) - with an introduction by Mr Ottman - and three minutes of eight US TV Spots in 4:3 fullscreen.

All of the above footage contain subtitles and the interviews were shot on film but have been put through the mincer, like an episode of Hollyoaks or Brookside, to pretend that they've been shot on film when it makes them look anything but.

Finally there's two audio commentaries - one from John Ottman and the other from Christopher Quarrie and director Bryan Singer.

There are 32 chapters to the movie, dialogue comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 for English and French, with subtitles come in 3 languages: English (with a hard of hearing option), French and Dutch. The menus are animated and scored.

In 1998, one Usual Suspects fan just couldn't go
on after Polygram's original fullscreen DVD release.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2002.

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