Starring:	Gabriel Byrne	101min
	Kevin Spacey
	Kevin Pollak	1995
	Steven Baldwin
	Chazz Palminteri
	Bernico Del Toro
	Pete Postlethwaite
Screenplay:	Christopher Mc Quarrie	Thriller
Director:	Bryan Singer	Colour

Region	2	Studio:	Polygram
Format	Single Sided, Single Layer	Subtitles	English
			English Closed Captions
Aspect ratio	4:3		Spanish
			Dutch
Anamorphic	No		French
Soundtracks	MPEG 2.0	Extra Features	Theatrical Trailer
	French MPEG 2.0		Biographies
	Spanish MPEG 2.0
Case type	Jewel

The DVD * *		The Movie * * * *
Just as the very name of Keyser Soze fills the characters in the film with dread and terror, the name Usual Suspects has the same effect on the good people of Polygram PR. Upon it's original release in the summer of 1998, it was declared definitively the worst disc ever to be made in region 2. But that was then, and now we have Polygram's reissue. Don't get too excited though - the only change is to the sound. Originally, some weird phase error was introduced between the left and right tracks, which made voices come out of all 5 speakers in Pro-logic. Happily this has now been fixed (although it is still only a 2 channel surround matrix, rather than true 5.1 multichannel). The good news though is that despite that, the soundtrack is excellent, with a superb dynamic range and LF woomph where necessary, and a great showcase for composer / editor John Ottman's music score. Picture wise, things are pretty rough. If you want to see what bad MPEG compression looks like, well this is the disc for you. A close up peer pulls the picture to pieces, with some shots virtually still frames - kinda unforgivable on a 100 minute movie. But even here, a normal viewing distance renders them largely invisible - testimony to ruggedness of this compression format in a domestic environment. Of course it is fullscreen only, but since the film was shot in the variable ratio Super 35, it is not the compositional disaster you might fear. One glitch resulting from it - watch for a boom microphone pop into frame in the famous line-up shot. But those menus. Oh my goodness. You'd need a PHD to successfully navigate your way round on a first attempt - truly awful, and sluggish as well. If you finally get to activate the trailer, you'll be treated to the original sound fault present across the whole movie, and a staggeringly bad picture. It comes to this. If you have a 4:3 set, Pro-logic sound and don't care about extras, this disc is okay. But when you see the US version, with full and wide screen versions (though not anamorphic incidentally), sensible menus and, best of all, the almost legendary riotous commentary from Mc Quarrie and Synger, this is a pretty poor substitute.		Five hardened criminals pulling a bungled raid in LA sounds, on the face of it, like a rather obvious rip off of Mr Tarantino's debut warehouse of horrors. This low budget independent, however, is about as far removed from the ear-slicing cult classic as it is possible to get without the use of animated furry animals. OK, so we do see a lot of flashbacks, but that really is the last similarity. The FBI try to make sense of a Los Angeles docks incident - resulting in the deaths of thirty crew - by interviewing one of a gang of five, protected by an immunity deal. We learn the quintet first got together as the - hey! - usual suspects in a police line up for a major drugs deal, and after that, onion skin after onion skin are peeled off to reveal a complex series of deals, double deals and double double deals with extra side orders of deals. The remarkably unflashy but stylish direction holds the complex script together well, never letting the viewer become too confused by each plot turn - pay attention and you'll do fine. Great performances by the ensemble cast are lead by Byrne as the man who has finally found love and wants to go straight, and Spacey, the supergrass cripple of lower criminal status but higher criminal brain. Being a twisty-turny creature, this film invites you to succumb to the temptation of second guessing every development as it happens, but it would be a much more rewarding experience to simply sit back, and let the story unfold in it's own way and time around you. Once again featuring central characters that are, at heart, pretty nasty pieces of work (absolutely definitely the last Quentin comparison), this is far more involving intellectually than emotionally, and thus leaves you with the feeling that you've been distracted rather than involved. As distractions go, however, this is as damn fine a thriller as you're likely to find anywhere.