Inside Man

"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.

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.

Inside Man starts decent enough with Emile Hirsch playing a cop with anger managment problems who convinces his captain to let him go undercover to infiltrate the mob.

The film attempts to copy Scorcese's style with Emile Hirsch narrating over slow motion montages scored with guitar / rock music. There is harsh realistic violence, scenes of hits, people being tortured, cut to pieces and being disposed in garbage bags. There are a few tense scenes.

However the film is less than the sum of its parts. It fails to connect. Where Goodfellas or Casino pulled you in, made everything feel grandiose and meaningful, the plot here amounts to very little, and Emile Hirsch's protagonist is neither interesting or engaging. His acting is a mixed back here. Great in some scenes, deer in the headlight in others. There's no way experienced mobsters wouldn't have sniffed him out as he was flinching and staring in utter horror during the killings.

The mobsters themselves are sadly forgettable. There's no colorful characters here portrayed by veteran actors like Pesci or DeNiro.

Inside man isn't unwatchable, I was just bored by it.

The director here seems to have no idea how to tell this story. The way some scenes come across seem so obviously wrong, as if the story, the director and the actors are not entirely on the same page. They haven't thought the film through well enough. This easily could've been at least a decent film with these actors and the crime story. However the film leaves us mostly just stunned in disbelief as to how badly this story is conveyed to us at certain times. The writing is also quite weak in some areas, and much of it just seems regurgitated from other classic crime films, (Which could still be reasonably good if done well.). At the very start of the film, it actually does seem fairly good, until you start to see all the problems I've previously mentioned here. At that point, it just starts to become ridiculous.

2.5/10.

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.