Metacritic reviews

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.

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.

Dense, ironic and thoroughly engrossing caper melodrama.

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

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.

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

I liked this film better the second time around.

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

Self-consciously bleak.

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.