Gemini Lounge

Well what a pleasant surprise to find an outright excellent crime movie based loosely on a team of horrendous mass murdering serial killers who contracted to (and were part of) the mafia decades ago.

I don't understand the average reviews here unless of course they simply skimmed it or weren't aware of the backstory. To call this a cliche is ridiculous - these events really happened (except for the disgruntled cop) and last I looked, life, reality, is not a cliche.

I've been a member of IMDB for 8 years but only done a handfull of reviews, I'm pretty lazy & otherwise busy so only pop out when the occasion really demands - like here.

The standard of acting here is sky high. Emile is great, but watch the De Meo character, Lucy Hale in a few scenes which she steals as the ice cold killers' moll, James Russo as the stone killer elder mobster and especially the Senter character. A nest of serial killer vipers ably portrayed and I had the greatest pleasure in watching this movie. Real life is never a cliche...

Wow this was surprisingly awesome. For an non-studio produced (independently funded) film, it's a B-grade version of the best big budget Hollywood-produced gangster films. Produced, directed and co-starring Danny A. Abeckaser with Emile Hirsch, and a bunch of other perfectly cast mobster-looking actors, all performances were spot on. Written by newb screenwriter Kosta Kondilopoulos, this is a very engaging and thrilling story based on true events. Aside from some pacing issues and other small rookie filmmaking mistakes, the 91 min runtime was effectively used, and although I'm not usually a fan of narrated storytelling, it actually worked well in this film. Props to all the cast and crew for pulling off such a great little indie gem. It's a well deserved 8/10 and certainly a recommended watch from me. Click on my username to see how I rate and review films, or to see more of my 1,700+ reviews and 3,000+ ratings.

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.

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.