The Usual Suspects (1995)

I want to start the article by saying that I do not condone the actions of one of the actors in the film and the reason for choosing the film had nothing to do with that said actor. The director Bryan Singer (X-Men) and the writer Christopher McQuarrie's (Edge Of Tomorrow) and the rest of the actors in the film's art should not suffer because of one man's actions. With that being said, the film I chose for today is 1995's The Usual Suspects which was Singer's second film and it tells the tale of one lone survivor's recounting of the chaos that ensued from New York to Los Angeles that ended with one major gunfight and destruction on some boats and all thanks to one random police lineup where they met. The film stars Stephen Baldwin (The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas) as McManus, Gabriel Byrne (Vampire Academy) as Keaton, Benicio Del Toro (The Hunted) as Fenster, Kevin Pollak (Buffalo '66) as Hockney, Chazz Palminteri (Vault) as Dave Kujan, Pete Postlethwaite (Inception) as Kobayashi, Suzy Amis (The Ballad Of Little Jo) as Edie Finneran, Giancarlo Esposito (Okja) as Jack Baer, Dan Hedaya (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) as Jeff Rabin, and Paul Bartel (Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills) as smuggler.

This was an interesting movie to say the least that took a different direction that most crime films. One thing that kind of bothered me is that if all of these guys did not know each other at all before the police lineup then why would you join up to do jobs in the first place? It's just such a random thing for me to believe that they would be as good as they were together if they didn't know each other before hand or maybe they are just that lucky. This ended up being one of those films where you were trying to figure out just who was Keyser Söze as they kept building up this character for the whole entire film as this mysterious enigma that apparently everyone was terrified of, but he was the link to all of them being there. As much as many of you may hate the man, he did a terrific job as he told the story and he kind of steals the show as the cripple who pretty much manipulates everyone and when you see the twist at the end, you're like I should have seen that coming. Chazz Palminteri also did an amazing job int he film and it was crazy to see him play a character that wasn't a mobster. I don't know what Benicio Del Toro's character was, but it was almost like he was the Boomhauer of New York. You could barely understand anything he was saying during the film which was kind of funny, but other than that it was an OK film. There wasn't anything revolutionary about it, but the caliber of actors was there and that was kind of what it had going for it. That is why I am going to give the film an B- for a final grade.

The Hunted (2003)

William Friedkin (The French Connection) is a director who has quite the impressive list of films that he has directed over the course of career like the aforementioned film next to his name and others like The Exorcist, Killer Joe, To Live And Die In LA, and so many more.  I was cruising through the Tubi app when I came across one of his films and I decided to check it out for today in 2003's The Hunted. The film stars Benicio Del Toro (Guardians Of The Galaxy) as Aaron Hallam, a soldier who was trained by the very best to be the best damn solider assassin that the US Government could have. The only problem is what happens when that trained weapon begins to take his mission a little too far and into everyday life? I guess that's when you hire the guy (Tommy Lee Jones) who made him who he is to hunt him down before he claims anymore lives. The film also stars Connie Nielsen (One Hour Photo) as Abby Durrell, Leslie Stefanson (As Good As It Gets) as Irene Kravitz, John Finn (Catch Me If You Can) as Ted Chenoweth, José Zúñiga (The Dark Tower) as Bobby Moret, Ron Canada (Wedding Crashers) as Harry Van Zandt, Mark Pellegrino (The Big Lebowski) as Dale Hewitt, and Jenna Boyd (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) as Loretta Kravitz.

I was honestly expecting a lot more from this film then what we actually got and I think what I mean is that I thought it would be a lot better and more action packed then it was. There is action in the film, but it's nothing exciting like Taken or Rambo. I honestly thought that with the caliber of films that Benicio has been in that he was going to be the star of the film, but it was actually Tommy Lee Jones who stole the show for me. Benicio looked like he was trying to figure out what kind of a super soldier he was like should I be the strong silent type, the wacky I am obviously mentally unstable type, etc. Meanwhile, Tommy Lee Jones is stealing the show and you are literally rooting for the master to defeat the student cause he's proven that he screwed up with Benicio's character and he has to put him down himself. The final fight scene between the two of them had this really long build up of a giant chase through the city scene and then it went into a Rocky like montage of them getting their weapons ready for the final showdown. Then you proceed to the final showdown and it actually doesn't disappoint you as much as I thought it would. Tommy Lee Jones whoops his ass and all is returned back to normal and he can now live his life with no regrets because he killed the worlds best assassin. Some of the dialogue and acting was just bad in this film at times, but it wasn't bad enough that you dreaded watching, it was just a couple of moments here and there. The cinematography could be the saving grace of this film, but not enough to escape it's C+ grade.