The Usual Suspects Review
by Ian Rooney (at570 AT freenet DOT carleton DOT ca)September 19th, 1995
THE USUAL SUSPECTS
A film review by Ian Rooney
Copyright 1995 Ian Rooney
THE USUAL SUSPECTS is a bad film that somehow got rave reviews. From the monotonous opening credits I knew I had been taken. The film opens opens with about a five-minute nighttime shot of shimmering black water, nothing else. Nothing but the opening credits, light shimmering on black water and ominous, melodramatic music. I recall thinking of how inexpensive it would be to go with five minutes of black water and generic music that was probably recorded in the 1960's. Having just paid $8 and change to enter, and then paid out for popcorn that costed the equivalent of a full-course dinner at Swiss Chalet, I grew a little impatient waiting for something to happen. Unfortunately, something did happen. A grimy little low-budget film with lots of vulgarity and violence is what happened. Not even Pulp- Fiction level vulgarity and violence, either. Boring cliche's, macho stereotypes, 1970's-TV-Cop-Show familiarity with a lot of vulgar language and grimy homo-eroticism thrown in to spice it up. Cheap! Cheap! It screams cheap! They must have found some old New-York hacks to write and direct this piece of shit. It is almost like they just dusted off an old film from the seventies and released it. What an appalling. PULP FICTION was gross and vulgar, yes, but at least whoever made it had enough class to get away with it. Whatever low-life made THE USUAL SUSPECTS has no business playing with vulgarity and violence because those are extra luxuries that a film like this simply cannot afford.
The low-lifes in the media who both enjoyed this film and gave it a good review should have their heads checked so that they qualify for disability when they are fired. A lot of people will be disappointed and ripped off by THE USUAL SUSPECTS.
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Ian Rooney
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