Hollywood is always taking great foreign films and doing sub-par (or truly awful) remakes of them. Case in point is “Point of No Return” (and also the television series “La Femme Nikita“), the pointless remake of Luc Besson’s 1990 film “Nikita.” Another great example is the dumbing down of George Sluizer’s super creepy “Spoorloos” with the ultra-bad “The Vanishing” in 1993. A couple of years ago Chris Nolan did a pretty good job at American-izing “Insomnia” … but I just gotta tell you how fantastic the original Norwegian/Swedish film is. Erik Skjoldbjærg’s “Insomnia” (from 1997) features an excellent performance by Stellan Skarsgård as disgraced Swedish detective Jonas Engström. No “Hollywood” conventions are needed to propel the story. It’s character driven all the way. The cinematography and design of the movie is very cold and harsh. If you can hunt out a copy of original Norwegian/Swedish version of “Insomnia” to view you really should. Check out the trailer here. [5.67 MB]