Yea, I know. I can't believe I didn't see The Insider until now, either. The only excuse I have it an extreme aversion to Al Pacino in his screaming mode.
Luckily, this was a fairly scream free Pacino movie. Plus, I love Russell Crowe. I've found the only wrong move made by Tilda Swinton in The Deep End, and it was her accent. A couple of times, when she got emotional, I could tell she was British or Aussie or whatever. When Crowe works himself into an accent, there is no telling that he's from New Zealand.
Also, Russell manages to change his body type extremely between films. In Gladiator he seemed strong and tall, yet in this movie he seemed fairly short and kinda pudgy. I know, I know, losing or gaining weight is not acting, but it adds to the effect. And this boy can act.
As far as the movie goes, it's one of those that shocks you at every turn even though you know exactly what is going to happen because you watched it all on Sixty Minutes four years ago. As much as I disparage Pacino (and did you see him in Heat? No, fuck that, remember when he was out-acted by the worst Southern accent in moviedom, Keanu, in The Devil's Advocate?), he was pretty damn good in this movie. All his yelling seemed to make sense.
One thing I didn't understand: Why did they make such a big deal about CBS corporate interfering in what CBS news did? Yea, yea, appearance of conflict of interest and all that, but hell, these guys were worried about getting sued into bankruptcy. I think that's a good time to interfere in whatever activity is pissing off a tobacco company.
So, once again, I recommend this movie. I'm gonna have to start getting movies from NetFlix that I know are bad just for some balance.
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