Usual Suspects, The

Variety Todd McCarthy

The Usual Suspects is an ironic, bang-up thriller about the wages of crime. A terrific cast of exciting actors socks over this absorbingly complicated yarn that's been spun in a seductively slick fashion by director Bryan Singer.

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

This movie has everything but Humphrey Bogart, and I'm sure he's sorry he was unavailable.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A near-classic blend of mystery, personality, humor and terror, laced with one stunning shock after another. [18 August 1995, Friday, p.C]

Newsweek Jack Kroll

This one's done right. Here's an intelligent movie with no special effects. You have to pay close attention, to listen hard to its cross-fires of dialogue.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

A movie with style to burn, and, initially, that is this crime drama's most mesmerizing aspect.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The Usual Suspects filled me with a highly unusual urge - to be a true "reviewer," to rewind the projector and figure out this humdinger once and for all.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

Dense, ironic and thoroughly engrossing caper melodrama.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The Usual Suspects is an accomplished synthesis of noir elements and, as such, is an entertaining entry to the genre.

Mr. Showbiz F. X. Feeney

Byrne is a stand-up poet the way some actors are stand-up comics. His innate depth prompts The Usual Suspects to transcend its own cleverness--and this is the movie's smartest, least predictable surprise.

Washington Post Hal Hinson

This thriller is like a game of life-and-death chess, with quick double-crosses and wild gambits.

Film.com Andy Spletzer

I liked this film better the second time around.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Goes straight to cult status without quite touching one important base: the audience's emotions. This movie finally isn't anything move than an intricate feat of gamesmanship, but it's still quite something to see. [16 August 1995, p. C15]

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The Usual Suspects is a maze that moviegoers will be happy to get lost in, a criminal roller coaster with twists so unsettling no choice exists but to hold on and go along for the ride.

Salon.com Michael Sragow

For my money, The Usual Suspects was the pulp fiction of the '90s.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Dense with plot intricacies, thick with atmosphere, and packed with showy roles for a hip ensemble.

Film.com Sean Means

Something quite different: A movie that's smarter than you are.

Film.com Tom Keogh

Snappy heist film that keeps changing the rules of a mystery so that one is never sure whose hands are at the controls.

USA Today Mike Clark

Look out for everything, and listen, too, because Suspects is one of the most densely plotted mysteries in memory.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

Screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie's tough-guy dialogue and Bryan Singer's crisp direction give the ensemble cast every opportunity to shine, and they do.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Nothing more than an over-designed lobster pot. After following the beckoning twists and turns, you're left trapped and more than a little disappointed for getting in so deep.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Self-consciously bleak.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

To the degree that you will want to see this movie, it will be because of the surprise, and so I will say no more, except to say that the "solution," when it comes, solves little - unless there is really little to solve, which is also a possibility.