The Usual Suspects” came out and captivated audiences with its intricate plot and interesting characters. It has since grown to become a favorite of many movie lovers, and now, MGM/UA Studios has gone the extra mile with a packed special edition fit for any fan.

The movie itself is about five men brought in for interrogation concerning a recent heist. However, as one character mentions, they are not the type of men who should be put in a room together, as they quickly hook up to pull off a job together. From here, the movie explodes into all its intricacies and twists and keeps you enthralled to the end.

“The Usual Suspects” combines a lot of elements to make an enjoyable film. One element is the well-designed characters and story. As the story unfolds, the movie keeps you intrigued the whole way, and each subsequent time you watch it, you notice new details you missed before or details that mean something different each time around.

The actors all give solid performances and really create some interesting personalities for the characters as well.

Perhaps what is best, is everyone can have their own interpretation of the film in the end, which makes it a great movie to think about and discuss with others. That also makes it a highly re-watchable movie.

With the special edition, the movie is presented better than ever, being enhanced for 16×9 TVs and utilizing 5.1 Dolby Surround. This is a nice improvement over the original DVD release and helps increase the overall enjoyment of the film, although it’s not necessary, so no worries if you can not take advantage of these features.

It is the extras packed on the disc that are what make the special edition so special, though. The bulk of the extras, and the most enjoyable of them, come in the two audio commentaries and four featurettes presented.

The first commentary is done by director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, which was on the old DVD release, but is still a well done and insightful bit. They give a lot of details about the making of the film and the work that went into insuring everything played out right. It is even an eye-opener at times to find out little details you may not have ever noticed, or to find out aspects of the film’s production.

The second commentary is from editor/composer John Ottman. It is not as good as the Singer/McQuarrie piece, as Ottman is at times long-winded or repeats information, but he still does a good job providing some interesting bits of information.

The multiple featurettes are mostly short, but each one presents a different aspect of the film. These include features like “Keyser Soze-Lie or Legend,” which explores the character, and “Heisting Cannes” which examines the film’s success at the Cannes Film Festival.

These featurettes include lots of commentary from the actors and creators and give a lot of depth to the understanding of the film and characters, as well as just some fun information.

The rest of the extras are a mish-mash of various items, with some being rather entertaining and others kind of bland.

Such items as the “Gag Reel” are fun to watch, but not done in the same quality as the rest.

Also, the deleted scenes do not do much for the film and were rightfully left out, which also makes them kind of boring to watch.

The usual DVD suspects are here as well, such as “Trailers” and “TV Spots,” but these are maybe only good for a one-time shot viewing. There’s even a hidden interview with John Ottoman, which is pretty interesting, and some hidden interview outtakes with the cast members.

“The Usual Suspects” is the type of film that will grip you from the first viewing and keep you watching time and again. A purchase of the DVD is worth the movie alone, but “The Usual Suspects” lends itself well to the DVD format and really is a fun movie to explore through the extras, making this special edition DVD an excellent purchase.

Content: ****

Video/Sound: ****

Extras: ****

Chris Weishaar is a sophomore in pre-journalism and mass communication from Bronson.