The not so intriguing suspects

Rating: 8/10 (25 January 2003)

Ah, yes, "The Usual Suspects". My expectations were high, as is was called a "masterpiece" and received a 8.7 rating on IMDB. But, er, unfortunately, it just didn't work for me.
The story line is not that intriguing.
The events are not that intriguing.
And most characters are even less intriguing.
All the alleged "complexity" (such as the shifts in time) is meant to make the story more interesting, but it cannot hide the blanket of shallowness that lies over this film.
The film is made in such a way that the viewer should care about the well-being and fate of a group of ruthless criminals. That's at least how I saw it. But I can't and didn't feel sorry for any of them, so it was hard to get attached to the events. But the "real" good guys, i.e., the cops, didn't manage to get hold of my attention either (they just talk, talk, talk about things I didn't really care about), so I didn't really emphasize with anyone, which makes viewing a lot less entertaining.
All in all, I find it quite hard to believe that this film made it to #16 in the IMDB list. Starting out with an initial "6" for being mediocre, I add 2 points for the surprise ending, although it's a "stand-alone" scene, which cannot save the rest of the film. Further, I subtract, in total, 1 point for (a) the extensive supposedly-tough-but-actually-quite-annoying-after-a-while use of the "f" word, and (b) the fact that this film features a "Baldwin".
Rating from the Dutch judge: 7 (out of 10).