Does anybody else remember this movie?
I do and it kinda of mystifies me why it has this weirdly bad reputation. Certainly is no masterpiece but it's a fine, fine thriller and Pacino is fantastic in it. I love when Pacino play these morally ambivalent, or even reprehensible yet sympathetic characters. He also nails it completely in Angels in America. Performances like these are the reason he is still PACINO and not robert de niro.
it's a perfectly shot boring version of a much better foreign film.
these kind of films fascinate me because I'm not quite sure what makes them boring. I guess it's the fact that every performance is slightly above average. there is nothing glaringly wrong with it, no bad spots, just nothing that really delivers.
the new robin hood is similar in this regard.
I think you went too far with the Robin Hood comparison. Nothing in Robin Hood acting wise is nearly in the same breath of air as Pacino's work in Insomnia. I also saw the original and found it underwhelming. It was foreign film that wanted to be american from the beginning. I had a similar experience with Abre los Ojos, which I saw when it was originally released. I was excited to see it because Tesis, Amenabar's first film, had been such a major event in Mexico. But Abre los Ojos felt as if it was written in english and translated to spanish. When Cameron Crowe did his remake Vanilla Sky, it felt more as it should be from the beginning. I know is not a popular film, but Vanilla Sky also has a similar outcome from me, comparing it to Insomnia, and it is that the main actor in the american version has actual charisma and personality, star power, charm, I don't know what it is, that made me react better.
I agree with Alexandro while still thinking Nolan's version is underwhelming. To faithfully remake a film that wants to be American with something that feels more American (which is a better thing for the story) is still not doing much. A transformation would have been in order for a good remake, but so what? I don't hold the film against him. It was early and he was jumping from small budget work to something of a little more Hollywood size in budget. Most directors have transitional films.
i saw this on my 15th birthday