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Insomnia (Full Screen Edition)

Insomnia (Full Screen Edition)

List Price: $14.96
Your Price: $13.46
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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, but not great....
Review: Entertaining, great cast, beautiful scenery, not much of a mystery and certainly not much of a thriller.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: hmmmmmm.....
Review: wonderfully cast. brilliant acting. insomnia is very worthy. it has a great story, good characters and makes you very tense. makes me tense at least. but.....this was, to me, nowhere near as good as memento or following. those movies were top notch. i just dont think insomnia lived up to them. actually, i really cant think of anything that matches up to memento. but insomnia is great anyway. its just a different tone. and theres nothing wrong with that. i liked robin williams as a killer. that was great. pacino is hands down, always wonderful. and hilary swank the same. she was a little boring though. anyways, its worth your time. see it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Reference quality DVD transfer
Review: The DVD format has been out for several years now, and it seems studios are finally paying attention to the transfer to DVD. I believe this is because of the growing number of people who are buying HDTVs and expecting their source material to approach the quality of the HDTV signal. Unfortunately, this is not really possible, but the Insomnia DVD does approach this nirvana. There are very few MPEG decoding artifacts, and edge enhancement is almost nonexistent. The cinematography captures the beauty of our nation's largest state, Alaska, and will make you want to visit. Definite reference-quality material.

The cast performs well, and tension between the psychopathic killer (played by Robin Williams) and the cop with a dubious past (Al Pacino) mounts to an incredible climax. You will need to watch this movie more than once in order to get the subtleties of the story. Highly recommended!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Insomnia
Review: This movie stunk......It could of been done without the superstar talent and it probably would have been more enjoyable. These actors did anything but the memorable job that garnished all of their individual accolades in the past. I do not blame the actors themselves, they were restrained by the bad plot, and average direction by a great talent. Nothing about this movie stood out except for the bland taste left in your mouth when the movie ends. I have not been this disappointed since I lost 2 hours of my life viewing "The Pledge".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: pretty damn good
Review: this movie was really different then what i thought it was about, i say it was damn good.....
Al Pacino is amazing...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: are you kidding?
Review: I was astounded that this was done by Christopher Nolan. While I wasn't in love with Memento, I thought that it was innovative and original with excellent cinematography. I can't say any of that about Insomnia. The movie was entirely too predictable; Robin Williams was shown as the bad guy in the trailers, yet it feels like forever before his character is even introduced. The trailer also made it seem like there would be more going on in the plot than there really was; by splicing together different scenes it seemed like Pacino was going after a serial killer, which he wasn't. While you are aware that Pacino is suffering from insomnia, it is not very evident WHY this is important throughout the movie, other than the times he is trying to get to sleep, you don't really see it's impact in the rest of his actions. The plot introduces a lot of small details that may be important, but aren't and quickly drop out of the picture. The dynamic between Williams and Pacino was almost non-existant, and Hillary Swank was so nerve-grating I wanted to punch a wall. By the end of the movie, I saw the ending coming from a mile away, and didn't really care what happened to any of them. I am SO glad I didn't pay $$$ to be not only unentertained, but also extremely disappointed by this movie!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Like it's bad, look at the cast.
Review: I'm not even going to speend alot of time on tis review. It's good trust me. I mean Al Paino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Nicky Katt (WAY OF THE GUN) and Jonathan Jackson (TUCK EVERLASTING)are in it. Like I said, trust me. Oh yeah, it's from Christopher Nolan, the director of MEMENTO. It's good. Buy it, now!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Exciting most of the way through
Review: Pacino is a lot better than he has been in his last three or four (or five or six) films. Robin Williams is not bad as a killer, but frankly any number of actors could have played the part. Kevin Spacey comes to mind. The movie really centers around Pacino and his slow disintegration as a corrupt cop who is staring wide-eyed at the end of his particular road. The ending is silly and predictable and reminds us we are watching a movie. But it is pretty good fun up until then. Not in the same league with the director's previous effort, INSOMNIA, but more digestible for a mass audience.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: INSOMNIA: TRUTH AS LIGHT/LIES AS DARKNESS
Review: Very few films have the courage to face only one aspect of the human condition and to build a plot based on that. Director Chris Nolan takes the Norwegian book of the same name and transforms it into a metaphorical casting of light that illuminates the inevitable results of what happens when integrity is cast aside for expediency. Al Pacino plays L. A. detective Will Dormer, who is called to aid in a murder investigation of a young high school girl in Alaska. During the course of the film, the viewer learns that Dormer in under investigation by the L. A. internal affairs unit for having planted evidence to convict a sex criminal. Dormer is the sort of scum-hating cop who feels that the ends sometimes justifies the means in keeping creeps off the streets. Unlike other cop movies with a similar theme, Pacino invests his Dormer character with the sort of world-weary crisis of conscience that he had shown before as the aging Michael Corleone in GODFATHER III. Director Nolan uses the magnificent colors and sights of a land that knows no night to represent the brightness of a moral compass that Dormer sought, even back in L. A., to put him back on track. It is no surprise then that from the moment that he arrives in Alaska, he suffers from the insomnia of the title. As he tries to solve the murder of a young girl, he is reminded of his own failings on two levels. First by the light of the landscape that by contrast points out his earlier moral shortcomings, then later by the appearance of the real killer, Will Finch, played effectively by Robin Williams, who in his most recent films seems determined to eschew the comedy of his youth in favor of dark roles just like this one. Dormer and Finch are moral dopplegangers, not so much as two sides of a criminal coin, but as a coin with only one side. More than once, Finch points out that if an accidental killing results in a benefit to society, then the architect of that killing ought to be lauded, not punished, for it. Pacino hears this argument and is strongly leaning to accepting it. But like Raskolnikov in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, Dormer is prodded by his conscience in the form of Hillary Swank, who plays a policewoman who is bright enough to learn that the hero cop of her youth may also be a cop who now finds himself on the same moral plane as any other killer who seeks to justify killing solely on the basis of expediency. What emerges from INSOMNIA is a call that is as bright and clear as the shiny landscapes of Alaska. Truth is a beacon of light whose only purpose is to dispel the darkness of the immorality of sin. And when each of us is faced with the choice of living in light or darkness, then Dormer warns us to make the right choice, or we may lose our way.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Vintage Pacino; A Fine DVD!
Review: I'm actually reviewing the "Widescreen" version of Insomnia. But had to use the Full Screen link (none available on the Widescreen page. ??)

I really enjoyed this film, which features excellent performances (IMO) by the three leads (Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, and Robin Williams, in a rare evil role).

Pacino really gives you the impression he has insomnia here, looking pretty ragged around the edges for much of the picture. It's almost impossible (for me) to not like a Pacino picture. He's great in just about everything. And this is no exception.

The DVD's commentary tracks are rather unique. Director Nolan takes us through the film chronologically, in the order in which it was filmed, starting with Day 1 (which is Scene #111!).

The other commentaries are scene specific, which I like much better than having to watch the entire movie a second time just for the commentaries, which are oft times filled with silence. I wish every DVD had commentaries like the ones on "Insomnia". Excellent!

And how about that Easter Egg?! Outstanding! Clicking on that pencil next to Hilary in the "Production Diaries" area of the DVD will enable you to witness an avalanche that occurred during the film's production. The quick-thinking Wally Pfister (Insomnia's Director of Photography) was able to record the moment on video tape. We even get a glimpse of Hilary Swank at the end of this short clip, who comments on witnessing this unforseen event: "It was so awesome!"
This has got to be one of the coolest Eggs I've yet to encounter on a disc!

All-in-all, a Grade-A film and DVD presentation.


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