Insomnia (1998)

Must See Movie...

Just perfect...

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The original is a great, disturbing thriller. Nolan's remake is tepid in comparison. And as good as Pacino is, Skarsgard rocks it.

Erik Skjoldbjearg's Insomnia (1997) is a very innovative and compelling film in the Crime Narrative genre.It is certainly a very suspenseful crime narrative with a unique storyline that is somewhat convoluted, but made quite believable through a well conceived, and well thought out screenplay, very good performances by the whole cast, especially by Stellan Skarsgard in the lead role, and excellent direction.The technical side of the film, the cinematography, the editing, and the lighting is superb, not only making this film visually beautiful, but it is seamlessly interfaced with the storyline to make the whole dramatic impact of the film much more effective, and is very integral with the suspenseful, and even psychological aspect of this crime narrative.Overall, Insomnia (1997) is a film with high entertainment value, but also with a fair amount of artistic merit that makes certain aspects of the film quite thought provoking as well, at least in my opinion.

The Christopher Nolan remake of "Insomnia" surprisingly enough isn't well liked by everybody but generally speaking it is being regarded as one of the best crime-thrillers of recent years. I wonder how many people actually know it's a remake of this Norwegian movie, that was released 5 years earlier. Just like most people, I saw the remake before the original.And the the invertible question which on is the better movie; the original or its remake. In this case I really have to say Christopher Nolan's. It does a better job at capturing the atmosphere and the sense of insomnia, that the main character is suffering from. And no matter how great Stellan Skarsgård is, he of course ain't no Al Pacino! Biggest or most significant difference between the two movie is, is that the remake is a longer movie and for some good reasons. It takes its time with its buildup, which enhances the movie its tension and mystery.But it's of course not fair and perhaps even a bit silly to compare this movie to the remake because it of course got released first and is the original movie, which the superior 2002 got based on. And you could say it's pretty much a scene by scene remake, with only a few additions put into it. But I'll just judge this movie for what it is and pretend like I have never seen the remake.When doing so, you'll have to say that "Insomnia" is one original movie within its genre. It starts off like any other typical genre movie, in which a policeman is flown in to solve a murder case. The story however soon starts to take some twists and it starts to become apparent that this is not going to be an ordinary case, in which the main character is the perfect, righteous hero, who'll solve the case cleanly.The story is definitely the movie its biggest strength. It lets the movie distinct itself from anything else and its were all of the movie its surprises are coming from.But what also helps are its cold, depressing, looking settings, in rural Norway, that set the entire mood and atmosphere for the movie. It adds to the whole mystery of the movie as well, though it isn't really the mystery or the murder that plays the most significant part in the movie. It more relies on its other dramatic developments and its characters, which all makes the movie a surprising and tense one at times.In the end it doesn't really matter whether you have already seen the original or not and it also doesn't really matter that I consider the remake superior to this original. The movie simply remains a more than great and original watch within its genre.8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I don't think it's completely fair to evaluate a film by comparing two takes on the same material, but it was inevitable with this foreign original, directed by Erik Skjoldbjaerg. I had already seen Christopher Nolan's Americanized version of INSOMNIA and so I wanted to check out the differences. I may be in the minority here, but all this version did was make me appreciate the Al Pacino film more than I used to. I don't think Stellan Skarsgard was as effective in the part of a haggard detective undergoing a chronic lack of sleep and being forced into cooperating with a known killer. The setting here (Norway) was not nearly as picturesque as the Alaskan surroundings of the 2002 film. Truth be told, had I not already been familiar with everything going on in the story from the Nolan film, I think I would have missed a lot of details in this one. It would be interesting to know what I might have thought of this if I had caught it cold, without a comparison to the remake, but that's not a reality for me. But here's another example for me where a remake can sometimes deflate an original's power. Whether I'd even go so far to call a recent American rendition of a recent foreign movie a bona fide "remake" is debatable, though. ** out of ****