Unknown

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.

While undeniably containing many similarities to Saw II and Reservoir Dogs, Unknown boasts a unique (if contrived) central idea that lacks the necessary anchoring in reality to make it believable. Five men, all of them battered to some degree, awake in an abandoned mine (or refinery) with no memory of who they are or how they got there. As the story unfolds, they discover that two of them are hostages, which means the other three are bad guys. Even worse, the bad guys' accomplices are returning from collecting the ransom money to put a hole in the hostage's heads.

It's an intriguing premise, and writer Matthew Waynee touches all bases while not quite managing to exploit the opportunity for suspense inherent in the plot. Despite its short length (85 minutes), the time doesn't pass that quickly, even though the film is never boring. Everyone is understandably stressed and shouts a lot and they're all generally unpleasant to one another, so we don't develop any particular attachment to their characters. Given this, and the fact that there are some glaring plot holes (these guys don't have wallets?) the film falls short of its potential by some distance.

The cast is surprisingly good for what looks like a low budget effort, and they all perform well, and the story will keep you watching to the end to find out just who is who but, ultimately, Waynee adds just one unnecessary twist too many, leaving the suspicion that he wants to show us how clever he is as much as he wants to tell us a story.

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!!!

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")

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!