Unknown (2006)

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

'Unknown' has a brilliant plot in the sense that it leads to so much potential. It begins with the mystery of who each character is, and then leads further into whether those characters are good or bad, and finally leads into what their actual motives are. And it works for the most part. The only trap the film falls into is that when you have that much potential to work with it can be difficult to ensure you go down the correct route.There's a great cast here with a sort of 'The Usual Suspects' meets 'Reservoir Dogs' type feel. Everyone's a grub, but everyone could also have a heart of gold underneath it all. There isn't a weak cast member in the lineup and everyone executes their role perfectly.'Unknown' is certainly my kind of film. I did have a thought near the end (and have found that a lot of people feel the same way that I do) that there was a great opportunity for the way the film could end, and yet they dodged around that and took an alternative route. I think if they'd gone the way I'd liked them to (I won't say it for obvious spoiler reasons) have then this could have been something truly special. Even as it is though it's an enjoyable ride that is worth a look.

(Mild spoilers for this and other movies.).I just caught this flick on teevee, so it was needlessly censored and butchered for broadcast, but nevertheless it grabbed me by the collar to get my attention, and didn't let go until the end, to the point where my coffeemaker was about 10sec from overflowing because I neglected to put the pot under the basket!.That said, as soon as I saw Jim Caveziel, I knew I had to watch it, and it didn't disappoint. It was great to also see Kevin Chapman (JC's future castmate in "Person of Interest", too! Add Bridget Moynahan ("Blue Bloods"), Joe Pantoliano ("The Matrix"), Peter Stormare ("Fargo"), Jeremy Sisto ("Suicide Kings"), a genuine who's-who from tres kewl movies and teevee shows, and you have a visual treat from start to end.Acting was as good as it gets, as no one seemed out of place or out of his element. I also liked the bit of a John Quade / "Total Recall" philosophy that you are who you are *now*, not who you *were* in the past, when your memories are (albeit temporarily) wiped clean.In general, "Unknown" is one of those "figure it out as you go along" movies, where you begin with a puzzling situation, and gradually pieces of the puzzles are slowly spoon-fed to you to complete the picture. It's not as cryptic as "The Captive", where you have to figure out that different scenes take place in different timelines, and is much more linear, so you're still craving that next piece of the puzzle without being left totally bewildered until halfway through the movie. Bits and pieces of the characters' memories slowly tell the story in a rashomon-esque way.Although, I do think I need to rewatch this movie in its entirety to make sure creative editing-for-teevee didn't leave out anything critical, and to pay special attention near the end to try to "digest" the twist ending. Reading some of the comments/reviews here, it's clear that the ending was a bit *un*clear, so I need to fully take it in and mull it over. Genius, or slapped together in a rush at the end, I don't know yet. Hopefully it won't be as odd as "Revolver", though (haha).Anyway, while some people loved the ending and others were left befuddled and even let down, I'd definitely give it a go, and judge for yourself. I found myself completely drawn in immediately, and I wasn't set free until the end-credits rolled.

This is an amazing movie. Unknown costs less than 4 minute of Interstellar, but is 4 times more entertaining and is not that long :)Acting is fine, direction is clever and script is very well done. With little changing it can be played alive, I think. I love stories of people who lost memory and I love stories of people in closed spaces. And I like very much stories with unpredictable twists, and this one has at least three of them, all nested.The part I liked more is the one where no one knows who is the bad guy and who is the good one so they have to cooperate. It is ironical that just after 27 minutes the victim himself does the dumbest thing he could do, only to let the movie last another hour...8/10

A group of men wake up in an industrial facility of some sort. They are locked in and none of them can remember who they are or why they are there. One is handcuffed to a railing and bleeding from a gunshot wound. Another is tied to a chair. A third has been hit in the face with a shovel. As this group try to figure out who they are, why they are there, and how to get out we also see a police operation to do with a ransom drop.After its mysterious start, this turns into a relatively routine suspense thriller with a twist. There is a good cast - Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Barry Pepper, Joe Pantoliano - but two big things work against the film.One is that despite its meagre running length - a short 82 minutes - it takes far too long to get going. Having made its point (these men don't remember anything) it takes forever to actually do anything with the setup. And the second is that the script is not much cop. Far too much of it is simply people shouting at each other - there is no subtlety.