Insomnia (2002) - Nolan hones filmmaking skills with solid thriller

♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best Alaska Movie of the Year + Best Detective Movie of the Year + Best Remake of the Year

 

A gloomy darkness and a feeling of dread hangs over this poster for Christopher Nolan's Insomnia

Two LAPD homicide detectives are sent to a remote part of Alaska to investigate the murder of a teenage girl, but things go haywire in the almost ceaseless daylight of the extreme North.

 

Insomnia is written by Hillary Seitz (Early Bird Special (2001)) and directed by English master filmmaker Christopher Nolan (Following (1998)), whose 3rd feature it is. It is a remake of Erik Skjoldbjærg's same-titled 1997 Norwegian film.

An excellent 'little' thriller, Insomnia sports a masterful Al Pacino (The Irishman (2019)) and Robin Williams (Jumanji (1995)), who is good here in an unusual villainous part as a bestial murderer with inferiority complexes. The film also distinguishes itself with its insomnia theme, which is illustrated cinematically in Pacino's character's increasing confusion along with the entire plot, which is generally credible. Perhaps except for the spectacular Hollywood-type ending. (Although this is not to say that the film would be better off without said ending.)

 

Related posts:

Christopher Nolan: 2023 in films - according to Film Excess 

Oppenheimer (2023) - Nolan treats aficionados of history, politics, science - and cinema 

2020 in films - according to Film Excess

Tenet (2020) - Nolan blows smoke up your ass 

Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2017 in films - according to Film Excess 
Dunkirk (2017) - Nolan champions cinema with masterful war movie  

Top 10: Best future-set movies
Interstellar (2014) - Nolan heads to space in opulent, exciting epic
2014 in films - according to Film Excess
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) or, Batman and the Storm, Darkness, Anarchy, Evil, Depression
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
Inception (2010) - Nolan's best is a grand piece of action sci-fi, perfectly awesome nonsense 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
The Dark Knight (2008) - Nolan's best Batman 

The Prestige (2006) - Nolan's overrated magician picture 
Batman Begins (2005) or, Modern, Dark, Smooth Batman 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Memento (2000) - Nolan's overrated amnesia mindfuck   
Following (1998) - Nolan's ineffectual debut

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 46 mil. $

Box office: 113.7 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2.47 times its cost)

[Insomnia premiered 3 May (Tribeca Film Festival, New York) and runs 118 minutes. Pacino was paid 11 mil. $ for his performance in the film. Shooting took place from April - June 2001 in Alaska and British Columbia. The film opened #3, behind holdover hits Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Spider-Man, to a 20.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell out of the top 5 in its 2nd weekend, grossing 67.3 mil. $ (59.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 7.8 mil. $ (6.9 %) and Japan with 7 mil. $ (6.2 %). Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Nolan returned with Batman Begins (2005). Pacino returned in S1m0ne (2002); Williams in The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch (2003, TV movie) and Freedom: A History of US (2003, TV-series) prior to his theatrical return in The Final Cut (2004); and Hilary Swank (The Hunt (2020)) in The Space Between (2002, short) and theatrically in The Core (2003). Insomnia is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Insomnia?

Gamera the Invincible/Daikaijû Gamera/Gamera, the Giant Monster (1965) - The birth of the child-friendly turtle kaiju

♥♥

A sensationalistic, nothing short of fabulous poster for Sandy Howard and Noriaki Yuasa's Gamera, the Giant Monster

Before the film's title sequence a Russian jet plane gets shot down and explodes in Alaska with an atomic bomb, which goes off, and an enormous fire-spouting turtle, who can fly like a UFO, gets created.

Gamera, the Giant Monster is written by Richard Kraft (American scenes) and Niisan Takahashi (Kemeko no uta (1968)) and directed by Sandy Howard (Diary of a Bachelor (1964)) (American scenes) and Noriaki Yuasa (Shiawasa nara te o tatake (1964)).
What follows after the events detailed above is what feels like quite a long movie, though the film is shorter than 90 minutes. The effects impress, as when Gamera the flying turtle knocks over nuclear reactors. But there is also a ridiculous sub-plot about a boy, who really cares for the giant monster.
SPOILER In the end Gamera gets locked inside a giant capsule and sent to Mars, meanwhile the Gamera song, (it's pretty bad yeah), gets played again, and the screen excitedly proclaims as from the mouths of its expectedly enthused audiences; Sayonara Gamera!

Related post:

Gamera franchise: Destroy All Planets/Gamera vs. Viras/Gamera Vs. Space Monster Viras/ガメラ対宇宙怪獣バイラス (Gamera tai uchū Kaijū Bairasu) (1968) - Unmitigated kaiju trash

Watch a great chronological collection of Gamera trailers that runs 20 minutes here

Cost: 40 mil. ¥
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain - but reportedly a big hit in Japan
[Gamera, the Giant Monster was released 27 November (Japan) and runs around 78-86 minutes (different versions). Made as a more child-friendly rival to Toho's popular Godzilla (1954), the film was first intended to feature live rats attacking a miniature city. But the rats gotten for the film turned out to have fleas and were removed, the story was rewritten and resultingly the Gamera monster was created. The cost is under half of the one for Godzilla (100 mil. ¥). The film was reportedly a big hit in Japan, where production of a sequel was instantly begun with an elevated budget on par with Godzilla's. An Americanized version with some new scenes, dubbed dialog and a new theme song was created and released in December 1966. It is the only Gamera film to get a North-American release, and its gross numbers are regrettably unknown. Gamera returned in Gamera vs. Barugon (1966) and 10 later sequels. Howard returned with King of Africa/Caccia ai Violenti (1968); Yuasa with Gamera vs. Gyaos (1967). 2,533 IMDb users have given Gamera: The Giant Monster (the Japanese version of the film) an average 5.0/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Gamera the Invincible?

The Fourth Kind (2009) - Osunsanmi's stunningly poor, alienless mockumentary stinker

ZERO

+ Worst Movie of the Year

This poster for Olatunde Osunsanmi's The Fourth Kind educates the average Joe Schmo as to the meaning of its title

A series of patients all tell their psychologist of experiences with freakish owls. People start disappearing, soon also levitating! - Something is very wrong in Nome, Alaska.

The Fourth Kind is a found footage turkey of epic proportions: It is complete in its ineptness, which, at the film's best moments, is sort of amusing. It mixes what it insists are true recordings (don't believe it) with dramatizations in which it reminds us continually of the actors' names, which is a fairly idiotic ploy. Especially since it is backed up here by a barrage of incompetence in the fields of acting as well as the technical and visual side of the film. There are also not really any effects in The Fourth Kind that might redeem it in some way.
The Fourth Kind is written and directed by American Olatunde Osunsanmi (Bates Motel (2016-17)), whose second feature it is, with Terry Robbins (The Cavern (2005)) contributing story elements. It does not seem to be based on anything real in relation to its alien diagnosis of a community that it misrepresents; the only authentic element in the film is its use of names of actually deceased people, which qualifies The Fourth Kind as morally reprehensible, besides being just plain awful. Its title is inspired by the delineations of alien contact as defined by 'UFO professor' J. Allen Hynek. Osunsanmi also acts in the film, portraying a tired journalist. The Fourth Kind is insanely stupid.

Related posts:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Listen to a piece from the film's score here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 47.7 mil. $
= Big hit
[The Fourth Kind premiered 24 October (Screamfest Festival, Hollywood) and runs 98 minutes. The screenplay was on the 2008 Blcklst, a list of the most liked unproduced scripts in Hollywood. Shooting took place in Bulgaria, including capital Sofia, in California and in British Columbia, Canada. The film opened #4, behind new release A Christmas Carrol, holdover hit Michael Jackson's This Is It and new release The Men Who Stare at Goats, to a 12.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell from the top 5 in its second week and grossed 25.4 mil. $ (53.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 5 mil. $ (10.5 %) and the UK with 3.7 mil. $ (7.8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 1½ stars, translating to a notch better than this review. Nome, Alaska residents were angered by their representation in the film, and Universal paid 20+k $ in a settlement with the angered Alaska news outlets that its marketing misrepresented. The Fourth Kind is rotten at 19 % with a 4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fourth Kind?

The Call of the Wild (1972) - Heston's sleigh dog adventure is a minor gem

♥♥♥♥

Snowy adventure blasts from this poster for Ken Annakin's The Call of the Wild

QUICK REVIEW:

The Call of the Wild is a pretty entertaining and unusual adventure dog movie based on the classic Jack London novel about a gruff man and his sleigh dog Buck. With another guy and a bunch of dogs, among them the evil Spitz, they head North to Yukon with the mail and meet ladies and hoodlums etc. on their way. - A lot of stuff happens.
Call of the Wild curiously fell into public domain shortly after its release, and there are therefore many very shabby quality versions out, and I saw one of them. It is a shame, since this film is definitely worthy of a decent restoration. As far as my research goes, it has not been given this yet, which is a disgrace.
The film was shot in Finland and has many exciting highlights among them a sled-pulling contest, and Charlton Heston (Ben-Hur (1959)), here as the tough John Thornton, is a personal favorite of Film Excess. Again in Call of the Wild he is a man who basically hates all people: "You can all go to hell!", as he says himself. - Cool!
The Call of the Wild is directed by English director Ken Annakin (The Informers (1963)) as an English-French-West German-Italian-Spanish (!) co-production. Heston in his autobiography In the Arena wrote that he was very unhappy with the film and asked people not to see it. The film had a bad reception and wasn't released in the US until '75.
- But I'm telling you, it's actually pretty good!

Another cool, 70's poster for this languishing pearl, Ken Annakin's The Call of the Wild

In lieu of a trailer here is a scene from the film. This has clearly been restored, so I am curious, if there is a restored version of the film out there somewhere

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of The Call of the Wild?
Other Ken Annakin films that you can comment on?
Please let me know if a restored version of The Call of the Wild exists

Big Miracle (2012) or, Those Three Whales Must Live!

♥♥♥

Whales are at the center of this film, and so also appropriately on its poster here, for Ken Kwapis' Big Miracle

QUICK REVIEW:

3 whales are trapped around an air-hole in Alaska, when a reporter brings the story, and his Greenpeace-ex-girlfriend jumps on it. Soon the whole nation is involved: They must be saved!
Ted Danson (Saving Private Ryan (1998)) is good as a not so unbearable oil-tycoon, and Kristen Bell (Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)) is equally good as an ambitious news-bimbo. John Krasinski (The Office (2005-13)) slant-smiles his way through the film to quite annoying effect, but Drew Barrymore's (Donnie Darko (2001)) hysterical, combative character is, however, worse. Those are the two leads, which isn't exactly lucky for Big Miracle.
Everything pretty much looks like cartoonish caricatures in the first act, and no miracle seems in sight. Later the good story, - the film is based on actual events, - wins back a lot.
It is all tied together in a SPOILER feel-good-ending with romantic ornaments. Big Miracle is a sometimes sweet trifle. The whales are great, and I could have wished for a better movie for them.
For all of us who like ourselves a hope-filled, inspiring true-story family movie, it is a shame that Big Miracle flopped badly at the box office.
Director Ken Kwapis (He's Just Not That Into You (2009)) is busy today with his next film, A Walk in the Woods (2015) a dramedy with Robert Redford, Nick Offerman and many other good names.

Drew Barrymore touches a whale that has touched her, in Ken Kwapis' Big Miracle

Watch the trailer for the film here 

Budget: 30-40 mil. $
Box office: 24.7 mil. $
= Huge flop

What do you think of Big Miracle?
What's the world come to, if people won't take their kids to see a happy movie about saving whales?