jtindahouse '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.

morrison-dylan-fan Gathering up DVDs to trade in,I was surprised to discover that I had somehow picked up 2 DVDs of this interesting-sounding Neo- Noir!,which led to me deciding that it was time to uncover the unknown.The plot:Waking up in a locked abandoned warehouse,a man finds himself surrounded by 1 man tied up to a chair,another has been shot & handcuffed to a wall,whilst 2 others are lying on the floor badly beaten.As he tries to piece his memory back together,a phone begins to ring.Picking up the phone,the man is told by a stranger that he will arrive at the warehouse in a few hours time.Putting the phone down,the other 4 men start to wake up.With none of them having any memory of how they got here,they each decide to team up,so that they can break out of the warehouse.Whilst preparing their escape plan,some fragments of memory start to return.View on the film:Whilst the screenplay by Matthew Waynee is a bit too open on its rift of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs,Waynee offers an excellent mix of tense psychological thrills and gritty Neo-Noir.For the first half of the title,Waynee makes each of the 5 guys Film Noir loners whose dark pasts they each secretly want to stay forgotten.Keeping the movie limited to a handful of characters,Waynee superbly shows the gang splitting themselves in groups,with the ones who were lying on the ground believing that they were the "good guys" whilst the 2 handcuffed/tied up were the up to no good "baddies"Gradually regaining their memories,Waynee hits each twist with a sharp precision,as each of the guys start to remember whose side they are really on.Despite filming the flashback fragments in a far too glossy manner,director Simon Brand & cinematographer Steve Yedlin give the movie an excellent burnt-out Film Noir atmosphere.Keeping any light/windows away from the warehouse,Brand and Yedlin grind dry grey,whites & blood reds into the film,which along with brilliantly showing the isolated location that the men are stuck in,also subtly displays the hazy,cloudy memories that all of the group are suffering from.Reuniting after working together on The Thin Red Line, Jim Caviezel and Barry Pepper each give great performances,with Pepper giving his stranger a nervous sense of loyalty to Caviezel,whilst Caviezel shows his character to be a Film Noir loner,who is desperate to get away from the past which is slowly coming back.Joining Caviezel & Pepper, Joe Pantoliano gives a traditionally great slime ball performance,whilst Greg Kinnear gives a wonderful edgy performance,which plants a seed of doubt into the group,as they start to uncover the unknown.

gavin6942 Five men wake up in a locked-down warehouse with no memory of who they are. They are forced to figure out who is good and who is bad to stay alive.The general concept of people trapped in a location and then having to find out who the others are is not new. In fact, it seems to have become its own subgenre. However, rarely has a film with this theme featured so many talented actors, including two who are well-known for having portrayed Jesus Christ. That is quite an honor: two saviors in one film.There are shortcomings. Some of the flashbacks are annoying, and I do not care for the filming style they used for those (the colors are awful). Another reviewer compared the film to "Reservoir Dogs"... and while they are wholly different, there is a scene or two that might call to mind the Tarantino classic.

sol ***SPOILERS*** Waking up from what seemed like a drug induced sleep Dreamy Eyes, James Caviezel, finds himself locked in a deserted wear-house with four other persons. There's Crew-cut, Berry Pepper, Glasses, Joe Pantoliano, Broken Nose, Greg Kinnear, and handcuffed, Jeremy Sisto, who's got himself stuck hanging on the railing with a bullet lodged in his chest. As all five men slowly regain consciousness they can't remember who they are and why they all ended up there! But it's Dreamy Eyes in answering a phone call in the wear-house's office who starts to put the pieces together in his and the four confused men with him's minds.As it turns out Dreamy Eyes and those with him had something to do with a kidnapping which must have gone wrong when the victim and possibly his bodyguard tried to make a brake for it. In doing that they set off an explosion of chemicals that caused everyone, the kidnapped and the kidnappers, to lose their memories! Dreamy Eyes as well as those with him knows that if something goes wrong and the ransom money isn't paid to the kidnappers lead by the snakeskin booted Big Buba,Peter Stormare, and his crew of cut throat's that consists of Uzi, Ben Bray, Iron Cross, Jeffery Daniel Philips, and Pony-Tail, Thomas Rosales Jr, they'll be hell to pay. In the kidnapped victim and his bodyguards getting offed by Big Buba and his crew when they come back to the wear-house empty-handed! The problem is who's the kidnapped and who's part of the kidnapped crew among the five who can't remember just who they are!***SPOILERS**** With a trap set at the payoff drop point by the police Big Buba and his boys end up eluding capture and head straight for the warehouse where they plan to murder the kidnap victims anyway. It's the cops who without Big Buba realizing it who've got the upper hand on him and his gang by having a mole, undercover policeman, among those in the wear-house. Someone that Big Buba & Co. trusted to make sure that their kidnapped victims are kept safe until he and his boys arrive. It's when the four man, minus Handcuffed who by then had expired from his gunshot wounds, started to regain their memories that sides were drawn for the final confrontation when Big Buba and the boys finally show up!Confusing as hell of a movie in trying to figure just who's who, among the kidnappers and kidnapped, in the wear-house which only Big Buba and his crew really know. Even after all the dust cleared it took a while to figure out what exactly was going on in that your kept guessing with an unexpected and extra bonus thrown in to scramble your already scrambled brains. That's in the undercover policeman having a lot more to do with the kidnap victim then even those who knew, Big Buba and the police, about it. He was secretly having and affair with the kidnap victims wife, Bridget Moynahan, while trying to rescue her husband. This suddenly hits him, the undercover policeman, when she in embracing her just rescued husband winks at him! And the undercover cop with the chemicals that made him forget everything now completely worn off, and him finally getting his head together, winks back! That together with the ransom money that he had on him and was prepared to split with her that he now decided to return to her husband!