Inside Man

Quite enjoyed this easy-to-digest undercover cop effort. Film takes place in the 1980's and you can tell they put a lot of effort into costume (especially Lucy Hale) and set decoration.

Some films, like this one are just easy to sit thru - the story is simple, pacing is even (meaning most scenes don't lag) and the dialogue progresses the plot and adds some humor as well.

They also use narration the correct way, by allowing the lead to guide the audience (similar to Goodfellas) thru the story. It's not heavy handed or over used, which is a tricky way to write a screenplay.

Overall I enjoyed this film, it doesn't try to do too much, but creates a nice 80's atmosphere and does most things correctly. Only problem is they once again use CGI for gunshot wounds. Please, directors...stop doing this! It's an immediate downgrade on any film. 6.3/10.

"In that moment I realized, I didn't deserve her."

Inside Man is directed by Danny A Abeckaser and stars Emile Hirsch, Lucy Hale, Jake Cannavale and Ashley Greene.

Originally titled The Gemini Lounge but then retitled to the much more generic title Inside Man. The story (supposedly based on true events although to what degree I'm not sure.) follows Bobby Belucci (Hirsch) a disgraced police detective whose life spirals out of control once he discovers his wife (Ashley Greene) having an affair. After a public meltdown which leads to her leaving him for good and him being demoted as a cop he tries to seek redemption by going undercover to infiltrate the Gambino crime family's "DeMeo Crew."

Sort of a mix of Goodfellas and Donnie Brasco with Hirsch emulating both Ray Liotta and Johnny Depp but it actually works or at least for me it did. This is maybe his best role he's done since probably Alpha Dog or Into The Wild. Unfortunately not everything about this was strong because I actually feel like this lost steam as it went along and by the time the last 10 minutes rolled around and the ending happened I was kind of underwhelmed with how things ended. I feel like this movie missed a more interesting storytelling opportunity to have Hirsch's character break bad so to speak it sort of hinted at it but since this was supposedly based on true events I guess they wanted to honor the real life story.

Lucy Hale I thought was also really good here unfortunately I feel like she wasn't given enough to do and there was another storytelling aspect with her character that I feel like this movie should've taken advantage of but they didn't. If you decide to watch this you'll know what I'm talking about when it happens during the last 10 minutes or so. Overall Inside Man was better than expected and Emile Hirsch gives one of his better performances here so it's worth watching for that but overall even though this was based on real life events I feel like this movie played things too safe which led to this just feeling like a generic mob/ gangster movie by the end of this. Curious if other people have similar feelings that I did about this.

I'm surprised Inside Man didn't get a higher rating on here. It certainly deserves a higher rating in my opinion. People comparing it to Goodfellas make no sense. First of all it doesn't have the same budget nor director. Sure it's a gangster movie, this time based on a true story although I doubt it that things exactly happened like that. Even if it has a lower budget I wouldn't class it as a B-movie like some other reviewers stated. If all B-movies were of this quality I wouldn't watch anything else. Good acting from the entire crew with Emile Hirsch standing out of the lot. A pleasant story to follow, just like I would imagine the mobs in New York to work in those times. A good watch if you like oldschool gangster movies.

So, the crazy thing is, I am on a Denzel Washington movie binge and I seen that Inside Man was next on my list. So, I pressed the voice button on my fire stick, remote, and say the name of the movie and a picture of Denzel pops up and I pressed play. About halfway into the movie. I realize I have not seen Denzel and he's not the kind of guy who would come up in the latter part of a movie lol. Slightly annoyed but intrigued I ended up watching the rest of this movie because it was actually good. Very interesting story and very crazy especially since it's true. The cast did a great job. I actually found myself pretty nervous for the main character most of the movie.

If you're a fan of the mob and in particular what went on around the gemini lounge with roy demeo and his crew then this is a good movie to watch. I've always been a fan of emile hirsch to and he rarely disappoints, I thought the rest of the cast did well to and the locations and cars matched the period it was depicting, thats kind of mad considering it's not from a major studio! I had read the book about this guy and his crew and maybe they could have added more scenes showing just how brutal they were. I seriously think this movie is a solid 6.5 or 7 but since we can't vote in halves il give it a 7. Watch it and see what you think.