A movie that completely takes you by surprise

Rating: 10/10 (16 June 1999)

" Keaton always said, I don't believe in God but he scares me. Well I believe in God and the only thing that frightens me is Kaizer Sauze. " Verbal Kint
So is one the coolest lines in the movie. And it is a line that sums up how this movie is great at playing with your mind and your emotions and takes you on a journey from point A to point B, then C and then Z and all points in between.
As the story goes 5 cons are brought together suspiciously in a line up and are eventually thrust into a crime spree together. But what happens later after their apparent one job is completed, puts all of their lives in danger. They may have been hired by the mythical " Kaizer Sauze " ( who strikes fear in mens hearts just by the mere mention of his name ) to complete one further job where, if they succeed, will be free to divide up 91 million dollars in drug money. Quite the tempting proposition. But the story is just one of the elements that make this film work.
The men chosen to play the roles of Keaton ( Byrne ) Hockney ( Pollack ) Fenster ( Del Torro ) McManus ( Baldwin ) and Verbal Kint ( Spacey ) were probably done so because they were not major Hollywood players. Even Kevin Spacey at this time was a B actor at best. This was before his academy award and before Seven. And the budget for this film was not that large. But what the casting did by having these actors play the roles of these five men was create excellent characters that are now so familiar to us that I don't believe anyone could have played the roles better. The energy and charisma that they have together is amazing and watching certain jarring sessions between men is like watching Shakespeare ( if you're into that sort of thing. )
Of course the most brilliant thing about the film is how it is summed up at the end and if you do figure it out before they tell you everything, hats off to you. But my guess is that you won't and that makes the movie so much fun. This is a near perfect film and it is worth watching many times.