A Mental Thriller

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 2000)

I honestly would have given this only a 9 due to a teeny few overblown scenes, but I am so galled that the movie isn't ranked higher that I gave it a 10. =)
Make no mistake, this is a mental thriller. Nobody gets sliced, diced, there is no nudity, and remarkably little swearing. I guess considering modern society's taste for instant gratification and our increasingly short attention span, I should be surprised it didn't score even lower.
But this is a thinking person's movie, and a damn good one at that. Don't expect big explosions and sudden slaughters... you won't get it. Even without knowing that this was all based on a true story, I enjoyed every minute of the movie... and I think anyone who watches it with an open, unhurried mind (sprinkled with a dose of imagination) can't help but be enthralled.
One comment on how poorly the movie did during the *laughs* Oscars and the *groans* Box Office: as time goes on, both these institutions become more and more bland, with the oh-so-corporatized aim of pleasing the great masses by sticking to the least common denominator. But maybe the movie wasn't a commercial success just because The Insider is just too left-of-center. Maybe some really subtle pressure from some really large powers-that-be urged that it really shouldn't do so well... hmmm, what do you think?