The Insider Reviews

Fascinating whistleblower story for older teens.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

A supremely suspenseful and riveting dramatic tour-de-force.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

Not a single shot could be improved in either lighting or framing; nor is there even a single cut that could be moved by so much as a frame without damaging the exactitude of its placement.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10

A sobering examination of corruption, courage, cowardice, and the sometimes catastrophic costs of telling the truth.

Full Review | Original Score: B+

Despite having no action scenes, a 2.5 hour running time, and based around the tired subject of tobacco, The Insider manages to be one of -- if not the best thriller of the year.

Full Review

It has a buzz of excitement and complexity -- the sense that we're seeing the actual back-room decisions that affect lives.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

The ingredients--topical subject, great acting from Crowe and Plummer, Mann's brillaint helming--are here for a truly great film and yet something is missing, perhaps a sense of deja vu of case well covered in the press, or an aura of pompous seriousness.

Full Review | Original Score: A-

What I didn't expect was an intelligently absorbing entertainment that ran for two hours and 40 minutes, during which I didn't once look at my watch -- just about the highest praise I can bestow upon a film these days.

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The Insider is an engaging, beautifully-paced drama that leaves most others like it looking silly and amateurish.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

The movie reveals Michael Mann's unparalleled ability to fashion taut suspense from unpromising material.

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Director Michæl Mann makes the mundane exciting -- even though we all know the outcome -- with his trademark blue/dark back lighting, hyper-kinetic editing and a haunting techno score.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

A compelling, tautly depicted tale of corporate power and individual integrity. Director Mann may well have an Oscar contender here.

Full Review | Original Score: A-

This is a war movie. The big strikes are lawsuits. The battlefield is the conscience. And the heroes put themselves on the front lines for the sake of the truth.

| Original Score: A+

It won't be popular with tobacco executives, who come off as menacing, but here's betting they'll be among the first to see it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Credit co-author and director Michael Mann for infusing with wit a film that easily could have been unbearably pretentious, and credit Al Pacino, who plays producer Bergman, for doing the same for his character.

| Original Score: 3/4

Pumped up with sharp editing, vivid performances and a damning true story to tell, it's a morality tale with a hard contemporary punch.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Not only is the story fascinating and intelligent...and not only is Mann's directing inventive and yet down to earth, but the performances by the cast are truly excellent.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

Big tobacco, big media, big drama in director Michael Mann's masterpiece.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

Who would guess that a story like this -- set mostly in courtrooms, hotel rooms, newsrooms and cars -- could be turned into a suspenseful, heart-pounding thriller?

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

Al Pacino delivers his best work in some time as Bergman, a man of conviction ready to fight for what he believes in. Pacino has great intensity as always, but he doesn't go over the top.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4