Unknown (DVD, 2007)

Features Acotrs:Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Bridget Moynahan, Joe Pantoliano, Barry Pepper, Jeremy Sisto & Peter Stone
Running Time:85 Min.
Rating:Not Rated

The camera pans around an apparently deserted warehouse; suddenly a man (Caviezel) sits up into shot, gasping and looking like death. His horrified gaze takes in the scene: two unconscious men on the floor (Pepper, Kinnear), another tied up on a chair (Pantoliano), another (Sisto), shot in the chest, hanging from a handcuff from the banisters. He tries to leave the building, but the electronic security won’t let him out. And then the others start waking up, one by one. Mysteriously, the men realise that they have no memory of what happened; not just how they got to the warehouse, but no memory at all, of anything, including who they are.
This presents an interesting dilemma. It becomes clear that two of them are recent victims of a kidnapping, but which two? Who is on the side of the angels? In the absence of proof of identity, the men decide to cooperate in the hope of escaping before the kidnappers return. In the meantime, Coles’ wife (Moynaghan) is working with the police to ransom her husband, but the drop goes wrong, and the kidnappers get away with the money.


Unknown is a fairly average thriller given a clever twist by the loss of identity subplot and the classy cast who all turn in good performances. The men are initially paranoid and suspicious, with a tendency towards violence born of frustration, but finally realise that their best chance of survival is each other, and their best (or perhaps most selfish) instincts prevail. Their memories are gradually coming back as the story progresses, but in blurry fits and starts, so the audience pieces the story together in real time as the characters are given bits of the jigsaw.Great movie, with great actors, and a great performance, a unquie twist keeps you glued to the tv to see what happens next!Hope this helps you decide.Thanks for reading! :)

be careful what you do or who you are with cause this movie makes you think about who to trust or who to get out of the way

I bought this movie because it was compared to The Usual Suspects and Memento. Memento is one of my favorite films and The Usual Suspects is good but a little overrated. In my opinion,Unknown was a little bit better than the The Usual Suspects,but not quite in the league of Memento. I'm sure most people will enjoy this film. You can't beat a well told mystery or Film Noir movie. The movie has an oustanding cast including Greg Kinnear,Jim Caviezel,Joe Pantoliano,Barry Pepper,Jeremy Sisto,and Peter Stormare. The five strangers are locked up in a warehouse with no memory of who they are or how they got there. I will not give too much of the movie,but it involves a kidnapping. Two of the men have been kidnapped and the other three are the kidnappers. The moviegoer will enjoy finding out which ones are the kidnappers and reasons behind the kidnapping. There are many twists and turns to the movie,therefore it is film that you have to pay attention to find out what is going on. The plot of movie makes sense throughout which is great some films don't make any sense. It was nice to see a movie that lived up to the hype on the box. I don't I've read on the box that this movie is like so and so,and it ended up to be complete and utter garbage. So just sit back and enjoy a well done mystery.

I hadn't heard much hype for this film before having seen it, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Throughout, it struck me as very much in line with the earlier "Memento." The revelatory device was more standard here, being alternating flashbacks of the principle characters who are suffering temporary memory loss, but it had the same feel. Yes, I'm being somewhat ambiguous, but movies have a mood or feeling about them, and this film seemed much like the semi-dark, often cynical "Memento," mixed with a little plot-twist tom-foolery of the equally entertaining "Saw" franchise.

The acting was very good all around, and you really felt what the characters were going through (I won't get into it for spoiler reasons, but they awake in a very stressful, prolonged situation). The screenwriter may have pushed the acceptable cleverness envelope a bit - think the movie "Clue," with its interminable plot twists and 4 variant endings - but none of the twists and turns were unsupported by previous plot elements. The hand of God did not make an appearance, per se.

Like so many movies I've reviewed lately, this one is highly entertaining, but not award-winning drama. You don't need to think too much, just sit back and enjoy the cinematic ride. If you want something with a bigger investment and payoff, have a look at my reviews of Marie Antoinette or Babel. This film is much simpler. It gets to the action immediately, and does not require a degree from a fine arts school to appreciate fully.

Cons:
simplistic at times
plot twists ad naseum
no artistic value

Pros:
great acting
high entertainment value
does not drag on/good action



I give it a 4/5, and highly suggest at least renting the film. It's one I'll probably bid on myself, if I can get a good deal.

this is a movie that speaks for its title "unknown" i was an ok movie but boring from start to finish i decided to but it because i thought it would be good

A lot of reviews I read compared this to Reservoir Dogs and Memento, but I have to say, this movie is pale in comparison to even the latter of those films. It has a great cast of actors, and even if the script was well written, it didn't seem to come across as well on screen. It was almost a bore, but I pressed on to watch it because I'm an avid film/movie watcher. My advice, watch this only if you have nothing better to do, other than that, leave it be.