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63 comments in total

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81 out of 92 people found the following comment useful :-
unknown and unexpected, 6 November 2006

Author: misaacmom from United States

I usually am disappointed in psychological thrillers - typically the twist at the end never lives up to the hype. It was a wonderful surprise that this one failed to let me down at the end. Although the film is slow at times, there are numerous twists and turns so you don't have to wait until the end for all of the excitement.

Unknown is a great movie that keeps the viewer trying to stay one step ahead through the collective confusion. Caviezel and Peppers gave strong and engaging performances. Kinnear skillfully draws both dislike and sympathy. Stormare is a great character actor and perfectly cast for the role.

I agree with other viewers the lighting was dim and depressing but I would give a good guess that this was intentional. Certainly the movie would not have "felt" the same otherwise.

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77 out of 111 people found the following comment useful :-
Saw with a hint of usual suspects and a dash of Reservoir dogs, 4 November 2006

Author: Johnny10 from United States

This movie is engaging in the first twenty or so minutes, with a good cast including famous celebrities (Greg Kinnear, Barry Pepper, James Caviesel) and some appearances from indie stars (Peter Stormare, Joe Pantilona, Jeremy Sisto, and Marke Boone Junior). The acting is pretty good and the camera work is OK as is the story, with enough twists and turns to probably entertain most viewers for the running time. It's not a bad movie but not a great one either, with it's story there is no moral to be learned and that's fine but i wish the director gave the movie more style since it's not a heavy drama, the camera wasn't very flashy almost bland and the scenes outside of the warehouse were poorly done. If only the movie took place all inside that warehouse and the if the director didn't try to make it so straight forward. overall i give this a B-, it's worth seeing but don't make a huge effort. Also don't listen to the ads saying that this has the same story style as Memento, because it doesn't. Rating: the film when i watched it was not rated, the movie contains many F words although not extreme, and the violence in this movie is toned down, yes there's some but not too bad.

saw it on Demand in IFC in Theatres

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29 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
A real beauty! ...much better than expected., 10 February 2007

Author: Florian Peter Hilgers from Hamburg, Germany

I saw "UNKNOWN" yesterday in a midnight special screening and it was surprisingly good! In deed, this one is a real beauty among so many mystery, psychological thrillers hitting the cinemas in the last years.

This movie is a little bit of "SAW", a little bit of "IDENTITY", a little bit of "RESERVOIR DOGS" spiced with some tiny little pieces of "CUBE" - so far, so good and so anticipating. BUT: in many movies of this kind there is a story with some huge holes in the plot and a final twist at the end which may be unexpected and surprising - but after some minutes you feel a little bit strange about it because the final twist being of some strange coincidence.

"UNKNOWN" is better: the only coincidence you will have to swallow is right in the beginning of the movie, that there is a chemical gas which is strong enough to wipe out the complete memory of five people (including their whole identity!) for some hours, but fails to kill one of them although "death" being one of its side effects.

Under this premise the rest of the story is fully logical and surprisingly clever. And it makes the best out of the fact, that in many scenes the audience is better informed about the real identity of the characters than the characters themselves.

And the end is just stunning: when the final credits hit the screen you have seen many final twists and you know everything about what was going on in the chemical factory, but you do not know all about the motive force of any character. In fact, 24 hours after seeing this movie I still try to find out what is my personal opinion about Jean Jacket and his role in this game.

...and a movie which is worth to think about more than 10 minutes is always worth a watch. Enjoy this ride!!!

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46 out of 67 people found the following comment useful :-
It finally came to a Theater near me, 4 December 2006

Author: ctinay from United States

I thought Unknown was great. I really had to keep up with the twists and turns...it certainly forced me to pay attention (which is a good thing!) as sometimes I start to zone out. I was impressed with the cast given the independent nature of the movie and the fact that it isn't playing in many theaters. I love Jim Caviezel..he's a babe! I also like Greg Kinnear and was surprised to see him play a not-so-likable guy but then again...what do you expect given the circumstances. Joe P was funny in his own way and Barry Pepper was an unknown to me until this movie. One of my new favorite TV shows is Six Degrees which stars Bridget M. She was great in this movie and a total surprise to me at the end. I never predicted the end at all and that made the movie all the better. I did not foresee a lot of what transpired in the end...don't want to give it away though. I sure hope it gets to more theaters but if it doesn't, buy it through pay-per-view or rent the DVD. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it kept me on my toes.

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28 out of 39 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent!, 3 February 2007

Author: meaghan-mcbee from United States

The thing that I love about this movie is that it seems like it was very low-budget. I love movies that rely entirely on the plot, and not big action sequences and flashy sets. The acting is above par with some very well known names, and some not so well known names. I actually found most of the film humorous because of the interactions between the men trapped with failing memories. It is a long comedy/drama that keeps you guessing (but not for too long so that you can catch up with the characters and enjoy watching THEM discover what is going on). I highly recommend this movie to people who enjoy films like "Momento" and even "Fight Club".

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39 out of 61 people found the following comment useful :-
"Twisty Thriller" is right! Five men, all stripped of their short-term memory, can't figure out why they are confined to a locked-down chemical plant in the desert., 4 November 2006

Author: reelcaviezel

Maybe the critic who wrote (something like) '...written by the smartest kid in film school...' was right--you really need to pay attention to understand the game, the rules and the players.

And just when you believe you've figured it out, yikes, there are more twists.

Solid performances by all players, every one believable in their loss-of-memory-ness.

Several characters transformed with nice arcs that cross, mesh, repel and attract.

Smart clues dropped unexpectedly.

Plus, released to cable partners of IFC (at least in the NYC, NJ and Conn area) and is also available now with video-on-demand service. This makes this nice little film available to many, many more viewers, because the number of theatres listed across the US playing it numbers about one dozen.

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25 out of 35 people found the following comment useful :-
Nice thriller with good performances, 8 February 2007

Author: brucev13 from Netherlands

From the start of the movie you want to know what is going on! This I think is always a good move! That way you will get drawn in the movie! I love the little twists and turns! For once I didn't have to wait long for something to be revealed! So it didn't get annoying! All the actors did well! All of the men in the building were able to convince me that they could have been as much of a good guy as a bad guy! This makes the movie very compelling! The movie has a nice pace,not to slow but not fast either! Just fast enough to get the story going and slow enough for the viewer to digest the twists! To be honest I didn't expect the great twist at the end! But that made the movie so much better! I understand that people compare "Unknown" to movies like "Saw" and "Reservoir Dogs" because of the similar situations the main characters are in! But that is where the comparison stops! "Unknown" is completely different! And should be judged as an original movie!

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17 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Who Is Who?, 9 October 2007

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Five men wake-up in a chemical warehouse without memories. One man is handcuffed and bleeding with a shot on the chest; the other one is tied-up to a chair; the other one has the nose broken; and the other two are lying on the floor. They unravel that two of them have been kidnapped and the other three are bad guys, bur who is who? Meanwhile, the police force try to track the criminals that will catch the ransom and find where their hideout is.

"Unknown" is a surprisingly good thriller, with a dramatic and suspenseful story that uses elements of "Cube", "Memento", film-noir genre and many other movies ("Saw", "Reservoir Dogs" among others). The explanation for the lack of memory of the men is very reasonable, the acting is excellent and the final twist is totally unexpected. The character played by Jim Caviezel is very interesting and complex. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Os Desconhecidos" ("The Unknown")

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21 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
Reservoir Puppies, 18 April 2007

Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls

"Unknown" is the type of film that looks brilliant before, during and even shortly after watching it. The names of the actors appearing during the opening credits are fantastic, the basic premise sounds awesome and instantly reminds you of a handful of other cinema classics, there's an almost constant high level of action & mystery and the director maintains a fast pacing and regularly provides new plot twists! This film actually contains all the aspects you hope to see on a big cinema screen, and it isn't until quite a while after finishing "Unknown" before its flaws and shortcomings come to the surface. It sounds rather strange, but by now – only a couple days after my viewing – I can't even remember that many things about "Unknown" that were really original and/or genuinely impressive. In spite of delivering constant thrills and mystery, the only thing I can think of now is how simplistic the story really is and how the script actually reverts to such easy excuses to explain the oddities. If you're planning on seeing "Unknown", I strongly advise to enjoy the wild ride while it lasts and immediately put your mind to other things when the film is over, because if you contemplate too much about what you saw, there's a large chance your opinion will change as well. The film already often gets compared to "Reservoir Dogs" and it's fairly easy to see why. Five rather sinister men are gathered in a secluded desert hangar and it's more than likely that they're all involved in some kind of criminal affair. Slight problem, though ... they suffer from mass-amnesia following an incident or violent struggle and none of them knows whether he is a good guy or a bad guy. One of them is tied down to a chair, one is handcuffed and slowly dying from a gunshot wound, one guy's nose is broken and the last remaining two men are desperately trying to figure out what connects them. As the day passes by, brief flashback and awkward phone calls reveal that the men are involved in a kidnapping and that they are waiting for other accomplices to return to the hangar. But, which of them are kidnappers and which of them are hostages? And, even more importantly, what caused their temporary loss of memory? The amnesia-aspect of the plot is intriguing at first, but it becomes less plausible and definitely sillier as the film evolves. It's a little too hard to believe that the characters don't remember anything about their unusual situation and when the cause of the amnesia is finally revealed, it only comes across as a mildly acceptable excuse. Thanks to the minimum amount of filming locations, "Unknown" does feature quite a bit of suspense and an occasionally claustrophobic atmosphere. The screenplay suffers from the 'one twist too many' syndrome at the end, like so many wannabe intellectual psychological thrillers nowadays, but the writing skills of newcomer Matthew Waynee are definitely promising and hopeful for the future of the genre. The multi-talented cast provides this film with a bigger status than it actually deserves, but they all play their roles with great devotion. Jeremy Sisto's role ("Six Feet Under", "May", Wrong Turn") is sadly the smallest and it hurts to realize he'll probably always remain underrated. Greg Kinnear, Barry Pepper and Jim Caviezel are good in their rather unconventional roles, while Peter Stormare steals the show as the maniacal gangster.

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38 out of 65 people found the following comment useful :-
Unknown release, 9 November 2006

Author: fox-156 from United States

I hope this movie comes out in more theaters. Its got Joey Pants, Jeremy Sisto, and Jesus! I mean Jim Caveizel, or whatever his name is. I had been looking forward to this movie for a long time, even though it was more or less forgotten about by most people in the midst of BORAT mania, it was a really good film that has been prematurely abandoned by its studio. I can only hope that more people get to enjoy it. Hopefully in the near future I will see an aggressive wide release push of this movie, or at the least a nice deluxe DVD package of some sort. Something to show off to my friends as a killer-indie-thriller. It, like most IFC flicks, has wonderful performances, nice twists, and a unique feel that is worth trying to find, whether it be in a theater or on DVD.

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