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Title: What's the Fuss?
Review: Part of the 'cult' appeal of this film, I'm fairly sure, lies in its trick ending. This is all very well, but it's not a trick ending in the sense that it provides any clue to preceding events. For all the central characters to have spontaneously exploded would have been as relevant, certainly more entertaining to watch. The Usual Suspects is well acted, though shoddily filmed, clearly low-budget and cringingly self conscious. The premise itself - five criminals rounded up by a character who may or may not be Kaiser Szoze to commit a crime that may or may not have been committed - is the stuff of graduate film school. It's clever, but finally not clever enough. If you're going to take the best part of two hours to play an elaborate hoax, make sure the hoax is worth waiting for. This isn't. And as for the 'the trick is that there is no trick' school of thought; Sorry, that doesn't cut it either. Something either works or it doesn't.
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