rooprect Before watching this movie I read all the reviews talking about a twist ending, thinking to myself, "Yeah sure, I bet I'll figure it out with half an hour to spare." Well, I'm pleased to admit I didn't. I thought I did, but at the last minute they pulled the rug out from under me and hit me with a totally unexpected yet 100% believable ending. It's very rare that a film can accomplish that, the only other crime thrillers I can remember fooling me so well are "The Usual Suspects", "No Way Out", and maybe "Suicide Kings".The plot of "Unknown" is simple. Five men wake up in a locked warehouse, each with memory loss. From the clues evident at the scene they realize that something very bad happened, and some of them are "good guys" while the others are "bad guys". But nobody knows anything about anyone or even themselves.What follows is an excellent study of human nature: paranoia, selfishness, goodness, evil and most of all: what determines who we are? Are we born a certain way and fated to always behave that way, or is it our circumstances that determines our actions in life? In "Unknown", we know that some of them are ruthless criminals and we also know that some of them are innocent victims. The question at the heart of this movie is, if you erase the memory of a criminal, will he eventually go back to being a criminal? Or, without memory of the things that turned him rotten, would his good nature assert itself? If you pay close attention to the characters & how they behave, then compare that to who they really turn out to be, then you'll get the message the filmmakers are conveying. Great mood, excellent acting and suspenseful cinematography round out this intense psychological study.And did I mention what a great twist ending it has? It's not a cheap twist merely for the sake of surprising us, but rather it leaves us with a whole world of thoughts to keep us busy as the credits roll and thereafter. Definitely I'll be watching this a 2nd time, this time knowing who's who, and I bet it'll be even more fun than the 1st.I highly recommend this film to fans of the movies I mentioned: "The Usual Suspects" and "Suicide Kings" in particular (especially for fans of Jeremy Sisto who was in SK). I'd also add to the list "Reservoir Dogs" and this may be a stretch, but maybe the classic "12 Angry Men" because it has the same minimalist setting (12 jurors confined to deliberating the outcome of a murder trial) in its study of human nature under stress.

ryewheats I guess the best way to summarize this film is they took 4 great films and tried to spawn their own film from it. On the surface it would work if you have only seen one of the following four films: SAW, RESERVOIR DOGS, THE USUAL SUSPECTS, or CUBE. But if you have seen more than one of those you will probably immediately be saying to yourself, I have seen this film before and recently. The cast is great but the acting is just marginal. The plot twists aren't overly annoying but you damn well know they are coming. It's that kind of movie, written at a time when "plot twists" were the cool hip thing in Hollywood. Do yourself a favor and skip this one and watch any of the four mentioned above that you have not seen. If you have seen those four, skip this one anyways.

Neil Welch 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.

davebyron17 Honestly, I was very disappointed in this movie. Some of the cast was good, with great roles by Barry Pepper, Peter Stormare and Greg Kinnear but the movie kind of left me feeling like I was ripped off. Besides the good performances by the above mentioned, I was disappointed by the silly actions of some of the characters in the movie. It was like an M. Night Shyamalan nightmare. Too many twists equals too much cheese. Although the movie had great potential, I found it was a little bit too far fetched and a little too unbelievable for my liking. It's funny how my tastes work. If I am watching a B-Movie, I laugh my face off because of how cheap and hokey it is and ultimately give it a better rating. With movies that attempt to be serious and all I do is roll my eyes? I can't do anything but get disappointed. I gave it 5/10. 3 for Pepper, Kinnear and Stormare and 2 for potential. I docked 5 for ridiculousness and disappointment for what could of been a fantastic movie.