adonis98-743-186503 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. My biggest problem with the film "Unknown" is that it wasted a very talented cast of actors that can actually act in a plot that we have seen before many times before such as "Saw" except that this time there isn't a creepy doll or some old creepy killer. If you have big expectations for this movie you will definitely be disappointed because except the fact that the plot is very thin, the characters are one note and the pacing is boring it's just not a well made movie that tries to be way too many thinks in once.

juneebuggy This was a decent crime thriller about 5 men who wake up in a locked warehouse with no memory of how they got there or even who they are. Suffering short term amnesia from an expelled "mystery" gas container they gradually discover/deduce that 2 of them are hostages and 3 are kidnappers, but who are the good guys and who are the bad? Its up to you to figure it out.Clever premise, a talented cast and a twisty mystery make this worth a watch. Its sort of like The 'Usual Suspects' meets 'Saw' with a little 'Memento' thrown in. I never did guess who the bad guys were and I liked how this movie became a sort of puzzle as clues were revealed with each of the characters flashbacks as their memories started to return. Smart little twist at the end with several along the way.Impressive performances from Jim Caviezel, Barry Pepper, Greg Kinnear and Joe Pantoliano. 1/12/16

Ade Adepegba Hindsight is 20/20. I guess by now the filmmakers of 'Unknown' may appreciate that suspense is a far more powerful tool than mystery.Suspense - as defined by Hitchcock is when two guys are at a table having a chat unaware that there's a time bomb under the table that could explode at any moment.The viewer has privileged knowledge while the characters remain ignorant. The more the viewer is invested in the characters, the stronger the suspense. Hitchcock went as far as placing a child in the position of jeopardy but audiences hated him for it and the film suffered at the box office.For most of 'Unknown' we don't know which of the characters are the good guys or the bad guys. So, even though there is impending jeopardy because it's likely that the kidnap victims will be killed, we can't really root for anyone. The viewer is in the dark as much as the characters. The police sequences built around the money drop offer no clues.As the characters await the arrival of the main group of bad guys, they fight and form alliances but the viewer is unable to root or despair over the choices made.The most intense moment in the first hour of the movie happens when they try to get the attention of the kid holding the ball. It's a rare moment of real suspense.

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.