Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Before American Beauty and X-Men, there was Kevin Spacey in Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects. Easily one of the most engaging crime thrillers of modern film, The Usual Suspects brings you through a dope deal gone wrong, and what led to it, through the eyes of Roger “Verbal” Kint (Spacey). To go into further detail would be to ruin a fun ride with one of the most notorious reveals in cinema.

The 2.35:1 transfer leaves much to be desired. There is quite a bit of noise, especially during bright scenes, although some scenes are better than others. The detail throughout is nice and sharp. The English audio track is available in DTS-HD but not Dolby TrueHD, and the alternate-language tracks only utilize Dolby Surround. In many scenes, the dialogue sounded very forward in the mix. While this helps the viewer not miss anything, there were times when it was a little overbearing.

Since the video quality was somewhat lacking, I was hoping it was because a vast amount of extras were taking up all the disc space. No such luck. The special features—excuse me, special feature—consisted only of the original theatrical trailer. A commentary track with Singer and Christopher McQuarrie (the writer) was included on previous DVD releases, which brings up some questions as to where it went.

If you’re still waiting to see The Usual Suspects for the first time, this Blu-ray can fulfill that need. Otherwise, pass, and hope for a special-edition Blu-ray to come out.