Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.5

The Usual Suspects 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 31, 2022

Bryan Singer's "The Usual Suspects" (1995) arrives on 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new program with Newton Thomas Sigel; archival cast and crew interviews; deleted scenes; gag reel; vintage promotional materials for the fim; and a lot more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Who is Keyser Soze? A mad avenger from a foreign land? A master conman with an endless arsenal of tricks? Or the Devil roaming free while wearing a human mask? For a little over ninety minutes, director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie do a lot of interesting things in The Usual Suspects to convince that Soze could be any of the three.

They are all misdirection plays of the kind that Agatha Christie’s classic novels are famous for. Singer and McQuarrie transfer the misdirection plays in a contemporary environment and use vastly different, quite colorful language to manage them, but their goal is identical -- your mind must be switched into and kept in a guessing mode for as long as possible. In Christie’s novels, there are always crucial clues that can reveal how they end, but you must identify and place them in a proper context. Is this possible in The Usual Suspects? Are there crucial clues that you can identify, place in a proper context, and guess how the film would end? Yes, but because they are managed differently, you must be a better detective. Indeed, unless you cheat, you get one shot at identifying them correctly, so the guessing process is different. (You can always go back and reread a paragraph, or even an entire page, but in the theater, you get one shot at deconstructing a scene).

Singer and McQuarrie even structure the narrative of The Usual Suspects in much the same way many of Christie’s best novels are written -- a storyteller gradually merges incomplete pieces of a multi-layered story. Like Christie, the storyteller often alters and rearranges them, sometimes dramatically expands them, too. Admittedly, this is inevitable because the freedom to do so is essential for the success of the misdirection plays.

There are six key characters in this story and they all have lengthy criminal records. Five of them -- Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), Hockney (Kevin Pollak), McManus (Stephen Baldwin), and Verbal (Kevin Spacey) -- are united after a botched job in New York City and convinced to do a second job in the San Pedro Bay port in Los Angeles. The sixth character, Soze, is their employer, but his orders are communicated to them only through his trusted assistant, Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite), a veteran lawyer with a heavy accent. The job requires that the crew enters a heavily guarded ship and steals a very large load of drugs worth millions of dollars that belongs to a notorious South American criminal, whom Soze has clashed with multiple times in the past and wants to be eliminated. The new job is botched too, but not in a way that anyone could have imagined.

In the prologue, the only survivor of the botched job, Verbal, begins revealing to veteran Detective Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) what he saw after the crew arrived at the San Pedro Bay port and how Soze fits in it. Initially, Detective Kujan remains skeptical of Verbal’s descriptions and refuses to believe that Soze even exists, but when a very badly injured Hungarian sailor, the only other survivor from the ship, confirms just before he dies that he had seen him there, slowly changes his mind. While questioning Verbal, Detective Kujan then realizes that the botched job was part of a different, much more complex, and ultimately very sinister plan.

The true nature of this plan is directly related to the identity of Soze, which is why Singer and McQuarrie reshape his profile numerous times. They do it very well. As a result, The Usual Suspects easily acquires a very flexible personality that makes it pretty difficult to guess precisely what type of a film it is -- a revenge thriller, a twisted supernatural thriller, or a seriously dark satire of the kind that would have appealed to someone like Quentin Tarantino.

The entire cast is very solid. Even though the camera does not spend the same or similar amount of time with each actor, all contributions are essential for The Usual Suspects to work as well as it does. Only John Ottman’s soundtrack is not very easy to praise, though it is by no means disappointing either.

The Usual Suspects 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kino Lorber's release of The Usual Suspects is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray disc is Region-Free. However, The Blu-ray disc is Region-A "locked".

Please note that some of the screencaptures that appear with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and are downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc, including the actual color values of this content.

Screencaptures #1-29 are from the Director's Cut of The Usual Suspects Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #30-40 are from the Theatrical Cut of The Usual Suspects 4K Blu-ray.

4K BLU-RAY DISC

I viewed the entire film with Dolby Vision. On the following night, I viewed virtually the entire film again on Blu-ray, while taking notes and preparing this article. So, I know exactly how various sections of the film look in native 4K and 1080p, and what type of discrepancies exist between the two presentations.

The release is sourced from an exclusive new master that was color-graded and approved by cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel. Unfortunately, I have to say that the 4K makeover is as underwhelming as the one that was prepared for Out of Sight. Why? Because the 4K scan was clearly done right and the ungraded files are terrific, but the color balance on the 4K master is very unconvincing. To be perfectly honest, I do not know why Mr. Sigel would have approved what is on the master and I suspect that he was seeing something else, but I want to carefully describe what I see and think is quite problematic. Blue as a primary color is destabilized and essentially replaced with variations of cyan in numerous areas throughout the film. In some of these areas, the variations of cyan that emerge are so garish that they give the visuals a digital video quality. The first obvious example is in the sequence where Kevin Pollak's character is picked up (see screencapture #9). After that, there are numerous smaller and bigger examples where blue as a primary color, as a supporting color, and even other primaries are off balance as well. The most striking example is during the meeting in the building in downtown LA (see screencapture #3). I found this development very distracting because in certain areas the color temperature of the visuals quite simply isn't right. Delineation, clarity, sharpness, and depth can appear outstanding, but the most striking visuals are typically the ones where the new color temperature is very close to the old color temperature of the film. I think that in some darker areas the Dolby Vision grade helps quite a bit to rebalance some of the color anomalies, but the overall appearance of these visuals remains unconvincing. Fluidity is exceptional, so on a larger screen all visuals look pretty incredible. Image stability is terrific as well. There are no digital anomalies to report. All in all, I think that the new 4K makeover is a missed opportunity to deliver a definitive home video release of The Usual Suspects. (Note: This is a Region-Free release).

BLU-RAY DISC

In the areas that I examined very closely, I thought that the basic qualities of the 1080p presentation were very similar to those of the native 4K presentation. Darker areas, in particular, looked very strong. Fluidity was just as impressive and on a larger screen the difference in quality is minimal at best. Unfortunately, in 1080p the garish cyan produces much more distracting spikes in the color temperature of the visuals. (The Dolby Vision grade tones them down a bit). In some areas, it begins to look like other primaries have inconsistent saturation levels, though I suspect that these are all fluctuations that are in one way or another related to the destabilizing of the blue(s). There are no traces of problematic digital corrections. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Usual Suspects 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I viewed the entire film with the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. I had the volume of my system turned up quite a bit and thought the lossless track was outstanding. To be honest, I cannot identify any areas where meaningful improvements could have been made with a new mix/track. Clarity, sharpness, depth, and overall balance were outstanding. I did not encounter any encoding anomalies to report in our review.

The Usual Suspects 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary One - this archival audio commentary was recorded by director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie,

• Commentary Two - this archival audio commentary was recorded by editor/composer John Ottman.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary One - this archival audio commentary was recorded by director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie,

• Commentary Two - this archival audio commentary was recorded by editor/composer John Ottman.

• The Devil is in the Details - in this exclusive new program, cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel discusses in great detail the visuals composition of The Usual Suspect and the specific ways in which the intensity of its story was managed. Mr. Sigel also addresses Bryan Singer's confidence and creative instincts as a young director. There are some excellent observations about the lighting choices that were made as well. In English, not subtitled. (17 min).

• Interview with John Ottman - in this archival program, editor/composer John Ottman discusses his involvement with The Usual Suspect and some of the very particular qualities he wanted his music to convey throughout the film. In English, not subtitled. (18 min).

• Pursuing the Suspects - this archival program examines the conception and production of The Usual Suspects. Included in it are clips from interviews with Bryan Singer, screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, and Kevin Pollak, amongst others. In English, not subtitled. (25 min).

• Doin' Time with the Suspects - this archival program is Part Two of Pursuing the Suspects (see above). It contains additional clips from interviews as well as raw footage from the shooting of The Usual Suspects. In English, not subtitled. (27 min).

• Keyser Soze: Lie or Legend? - this archival program focuses on the mysterious character Keyser Soze and the various ways in which he is profiled in The Usual Suspects. Included in it are clips from interviews with Bryan Singer, Benicio del Toro, Stephen Baldwin, and Kevin Pollak, amongst others. In English, not subtitled. (19 min).

• Heisting Cannes with The Usual Suspects - presented here is archival footage from the Cannes Film Festival where The Usual Suspects was greeted with enormous enthusiasm. Clips from archival interviews with Bryan Singer and cast members. In English, not subtitled. (5 min).

• Making of Featurette - presented here is an original EPK done on behalf of Polygram. In English, not subtitled. (7 min).

• Deleted Scenes - presented here are a couple of deleted scenes hosted by editor/composer John Ottman. In English, not subtitled. (10 min).

• Gag Reel - presented here is a gag reel with an introduction by Bryan Singer. In English, not subtitled. (8 min).

• Interview Outtakes - presented here is a selection of interview outtakes with Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, Benicio del Toro, and Bryan Singer. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Promotional Materials -
  
  1. U.S. Trailer with Intro
  2. International Trailer
  3. TV Spots

The Usual Suspects 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I cannot write that I was impressed with the 4K makeover of The Usual Suspects. In this film, color and light interact in some very particular ways to create a unique ambience, so they have to be reproduced perfectly, but after the 4K makeover color balance is very clearly off. For example, there is a lot of contemporary garish cyan that either destabilizes or replaces ranges of native blues and hurts the film's noirish personality. This is unfortunate because the raw 4K files are of exceptionally high quality. Kino Lorber's 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo release features a nice exclusive new program with cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel, who apparently approved the 4K makeover.