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.

Vault (2019)

One of the greatest types of films that remind us of wild west stories, but set int he modern world has always been that of films based on La Cosa Nostra a.k.a. organized crime a.k.a. the Italian Mafia. We have seen so many great films that were based on trues stories like Goodfellas, Casino, and other organized crime films like Black Mass. For today's film, I have decided to check one out that took place in the smallest state in the union called Rhode Island and the films is called Vault which was released in 2019 and was written and directed by Tom DeNucci (Saving Christmas). The film stars  Theo Rossi (Sons Of Anarchy) as Deuce, a small time crook from Providence who along with his best friend Chucky Flynn (Clive Standen) decide that they are going to commit the biggest vault heist in the history of the United States of America. The film also stars Samira Wiley (Orange Is The New Black) as Karyn, Chazz Palminteri (A Bronx Tale) as Raymond, Don Johnson (Knives Out) as Gerry, William Forsythe (The Devil's Rejects) as Buddy Providence, Sean Ringgold (Uncut Gems) as Buddy Roxbury, Eric Lutes (Caroline In The City) as Buddy Barrington, Andrew Divoff (Wishmaster) as Buddy Woonsocket, Nick Principe (The Purge: Election Year) as Buddy Cranston,  Dorothy Lyman (Mama's Family) as Ma, and Chuck Zito (Oz) as Joey Bruno.

Considering that this was obviously a straight to VOD, DVD, and whatever else, this actually was a pretty decent film that gave you some incite into how things were in the city of Providence in the 70's. Providence is a completely different city now and in the last 20 years then it was in the 1970's and 80's and that's all thanks to what Buddy Cianci did for that city. Nonetheless, things were pretty reckless and the mob ran that city, but the greatest thing about this film is right at the very end when you figure out a very big twist. I never saw the twist coming and it shocked me because I should have seen that coming. So, the writing for the film was done very well by our director Mr. DeNucci who had the task of directing guys who were not household names and paired them with some legends of the genre like Zito, Palminteri, as well as appearances in the film by Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos) and even one by Burt Young (Rocky). It's a chance you take, but I believed that it was a very good one because you didn't know what to expect from Rossi. The film has about a 70% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.4 on IMDB which the first score sounds about right. I loved the mix of real archival footage along with the actors in the film, loved the costumes, hair, and makeup, and the Buddy's were great when they needed to be. That is why I have decided that I am going to give the film an B- fir a final grade.