Much spoken, little said

Rating: Null/10 (14 March 2003)

Though hardly new to American Cinema, the unduly praising of works saturated with empty chatter but totally void of meaningful exposition has ballooned out of control since the 1990s. Few illustrate this better than Al Pacino and Tom Hanks, who won Oscars in that decade for their inane utterances while the substance-driven competition was overlooked. Next we see The Usual Suspects, a similarly touted piece that does little to hide its loquacity, and even includes a ranting narrator named Verbal Kint. Sure there are duplicated moments of Tarentino gunplay where bullets and blood fly around, but that's the limit of the movie's action. After all, just when you are about to see someone particularly irritating be blown away (i.e. Kobayashi or perhaps Verbal himself), McQuarrie pops out and yells "Just kidding!" Some have likened watching this film to being on a transatlantic plane ride and forced to sit next to a thirtysomething salesman who simply won't shut up. Luckily, movies on average are only two hours long, and exits may be used safely at all times.