Round Up: Deposing 'the Usual Suspects'

Starting with the story of how Kevin Spacey met the young director Bryan Singer, this documentary follows the casting of the film, the development of the characters within the story, the difficulties between some of the cast through to the actual shooting of the film including problems getting some scenes down and other problems involving the casts' inability to keep a straight face in the famous line up scene.

Being several smaller documentaries put into one, this documentary is broken down into sections where they talk about the casting process, the development of the characters and the actual shooting of the movie. This is the main feature on the special edition dvd and it is a very enjoyable documentary that is not only filled with interesting little stories but is actually great fun to watch. The strength of the documentary is that it was made after the film had become a massive hit and had made it onto all sorts of `top ten' lists meaning that the whole cast are there to contribute to this. Their stories and their insights are fascinating - Byrne attacking Hollywood as making `McMovies' was a surprising moment to me. Even more amusing was Pollak's story where he first meets Baldwin and says `it's very clear that your brothers have been stealing food off your plate for years and you are trying to compensate for it' - a statement that started them on a rocky road.

It's lots and lots of little things like this that make this not only interesting but also enjoyable - you really feel like the cast have spent a lot of time talking to the camera about this film rather than the usual talking head rubbish that is taken from tv interviews and stuck together as a `featurette' on lesser disks. Only Pete Postlethwaite is absent and Chazz Palminteri seems to have been on a very tight schedule - but generally everyone else is great and there are only about two moments where it does the obligatory gushing over each other's abilities and such.

Overall, I could easily list all the interesting stories and comments that make this an enjoyable documentary to watch but it is easier for you to go and see it yourself. It is not all involved with the technical aspects of making the film but it is like having a lot of friends round to your house and reminisce about a good time you shared. Not only is it interesting but it is simply a lot of fun to watch - a great addition to a great movie.

I recently picked up "The Usual Suspects" on DVD and got a chance to view this making-of featurette, split into many separate (but linked) mini-documentaries dealing with the process of making the movie - pre-production/concepts, choosing the actors, filming the movie, etc. I liked the interviews with the actors. Some of them act a bit strange (especially Del Toro, as usual, and Pollak) but they still have interesting things to say. I also enjoyed some of the anecdotes they had to tell.

I didn't know that Kevin Spacey signed onto the project long before anyone else and made a huge gamble during the pre-production phase. It also seems strange that he would be credited so far down in the film's list of actors since everyone often refers to Spacey as the guy who really got the project off the ground and was the most famous at the time. Last time I checked he was listed as the fifth actor under the credits. He should at least be second - Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, et al.

Anyway...definitely worth a look, and very interesting. I'm surprised that I'm the first person to comment on it.