Insomnia

Not nearly as good as the Norwegian original version with the same title. Al Pacino can be very good, but he has a tendency to chew the scenery, the wiring, and any stagehand who stands still long enough. To overplay, in other words. It might have been better in this one to do Michael Corleone, rather than Tony Montana.

Intermission

There is an Irish humor that you either get or you don’t get, you can’t have it explained to you. I have enjoyed this rather cock-eyed view of the world in quite a few low-budget gems from the Land o’ Leprechauns, and this one is rich with it. It has almost too many characters to count, and many story lines that intersect (sort of) in a botched kidnapping/bank robbery. I won’t say nobody ... Read more »

The International

This aspires to be sort of The Bourne International, and falls considerably short. Of course, that’s setting the thriller bar pretty high. There are still pleasures to be had here, though the plot is way beyond unlikely and there are some things that just don’t make sense. For instance, do you think it’s a good idea to remove your bullet-proof vest in the middle ... Read more »

The Interpreter

One element of this film is the Third World dictator who began as a man of the people and, over the years, turned into someone as bad as or worse than the man he replaced. Lee pointed out that it’s such a sad and common story. You can find dozens of examples. Woody Allen poked fun at it in Bananas, when the “Liberator” makes his first speech and promptly goes ... Read more »

Interstellar

Less than stellar, I’m sorry to say. I went so far as to see this one in the theater, something I’m doing less and less as time goes by, both because of the high prices and because it’s getting hard for me to sit still in a theater for a film as long as this.

And that was one of the problems. I thought it was way too long. They could easily have cut twenty ... Read more »

The Interview

WARNING: Reading this review may make your computer vulnerable to hacking by North Korean saboteurs, who are watching you this very moment through the little camera bug that you use for your Skype conversations. Proceed at your own risk.

You didn’t think I could pass this one up, did you? No way in the world. Lee is not interested, and so be it. But I feel ... Read more »

Intimate Strangers

A woman walks into a psychiatrist’s office and starts spilling her guts about the sexual troubles in her marriage. Trouble is, he’s not a shrink, he’s a bored and restless tax consultant. He is so stunned that he says nothing. She keeps coming back. Complications ensue.

You’re set up to expect a Hitchcock film here, both by the situation and the music, and some reviews I read ... Read more »

Into the Abyss

Werner Herzog’s film is about the death penalty, which he opposes, but it’s really about wasted lives, and ruined lives.
The wasted lives go beyond just the two human cesspools he interviews in prison, one on death row, one who might make parole in 2041, when he’s sixty. Their names are Michael Perry and Jason Burkett. They lived their blighted lives in Conroe, Texas. One day in ... Read more »

Into the Blue

For some reason, we seem to be encountering a lot of movies the recently deceased actor, Paul Walker, made that weren’t part of the Fast and Furious franchise. This was much better than I had expected. He is an unsuccessful salvage guy in the Bahamas, who stumbles on a fantastic two-for-one site: the rotting remains of the treasure ship Read more »