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Dom Robinson reviews
Special Edition
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 Suspectstells the story of five criminals brought togetherin a framed line-up, with 27 bodies turning up in Long Beach Habour and a potof money worth $91 million. There’s a terrified witness dying in hospital, whocan’t say too much but mentions the name “Keyser Soze”. Is he a mysteriouscriminal overlord with a reign of terror, or the devil himself? Agent DavidKujan is hell-bent on unraveling the truth.
This film proved itself to be one of the few great films of 1995, winningKevin Spacey the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, with both an Oscar and aBAFTA 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 thanthis one. The five men lined-up to be stitched-up Stephen Baldwin, GabrielByrne, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Pollak and Kevin Spacey each havetheir own character to play, but it’s Spacey as the crippled Verbal Kint, knownas Verbal because he talks too much…and usually to the wrong people, whoshines through as the best and deserved his Oscar. He also starred inClint Eastwood’s Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Eviland should have won another Oscar for his perfect performance in Curtis Hanson’sL.A. Confidential.
Chazz Palminteri is also very good as Agent Kujan, the detective incharge of getting to the truth of the matter, with good support from fellowdetectives Dan Hedaya and Giancarlo Esposito. Finally, theubiquitous Pete Postlethwaite appears as Kobayashi, the man who bringsthe 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 fullscreentransfer, 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 (‘thoseblack bars’ to the uninitiated) could be opened up to reveal more picture aboveand 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-scanshot reared its ugly head, one being at the start of chapter 11 (on that DVD,but 19 on this one) with Chazz Palminterisitting on one side of his office and Kevin Spacey on the other, but the imagepanned from right to left as Dan Hedaya enters the office stage-left behindSpacey.
Thankfully, this Special Edition rights the wrongs and gives us the2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer we wanted all along, looking crisp andclear with only a handful of minor specks on the print.
The sound comes across very clear on this disc, with Dolby Digital 5.1 (Englishand French) used mainly to set the tone for such a dark thriller, plus more active use in scenes whereVerbal gives a description what happened when Keyser Soze found intruders athome and a loud explosion on a boat.
In addition to the much-improved picture and sound quality over the originalrelease, the extras on this special edition also excel, beginning with atwo-part featurette totalling 50 minutes, Deposing The Usual Suspects,containing film clips and plenty of chat from cast and crew members about thefilm. An 18-minute featurette, Keyser Soze: Lie or Legend, goes behindthe hidden legend whose name was borne from a man called Keyser Sume (pronouncedSu-may), who was the boss of writer Christopher Quarrie when he workedat a law firm. Note that you must watch the film before these featurettessince they contain plenty of plot spoilers.
Introduction to The Usual Suspects is a 6½-minute mini-featurettethat, unlike the above, was made at the time of the film, but doesn’t tellyou much about the film and is more like what you’d expect to see on BoxOffice America. The final mini-featurette is Heisting Cannes withThe 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-minuteinterview with film editor and composer John Ottman, a one-minute pieceabout an apartment scene as Kevin Spacey pays a visit to Gabriel Byrne inBryan Singer introduces Kevin Spacey and Friend; and InterviewsOuttakes (3 mins) show the latter during the former and descends into adiscussion about why the Jaws two-hour documentary with outtakes onlymade it onto the laserdisc and not the DVD release.
Five Deleted Scenes are included, all introduced by John Ottman, mostof 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 onfilm but have been put through the mincer, like an episode of Hollyoaksor Brookside, to pretend that they’ve been shot on film when it makesthem look anything but.
Finally there’s two audio commentaries – one from John Ottman and the otherfrom Christopher Quarrie and director Bryan Singer.
There are 32 chapters to the movie, dialogue comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 forEnglish and French, with subtitles come in 3 languages: English (with a hardof hearing option), French and Dutch. The menus are animated and scored.
In 1998, one Usual Suspects fan just couldn’t goon after Polygram’s original fullscreen DVD release.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.