Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"I promise you I'll walk out the front door!", August 9, 2006
The one note about Spike Lee films is that you're never sure what you're going to get. I'm not really a fan, I find that his films are too convoluted with extraneous detail and somewhat over produced. Inside Man retains all the elements of a solid bank robbery/caper film, whilst also giving us Spike Lee's trademark of gritty, street-wise irreverence.
The problem with Inside Man is that it's impossibly unbelievable with a plot that strains the realms of credibility; combine this with it's over-long running time and you have a film that features some great performances by it's cast - Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer and Jodie Foster - but ultimately sags a bit in the middle and ends up becoming rather ponderous.
Lee manages to pull off a handful of effective scenes, but he doesn't have the flair to bring the whole movie off with real conviction. An enigmatic master criminal (Owen) - who spends most of the movie wearing a mask - plans and executes a "genius plan" in which he and several masked companions take over a Lower Manhattan bank and brutally seize several dozen of its customers as hostages.
The NYPD negotiator given the task of dealing with these crooks is an affable junior detective, Detective Keith Frazier (Washington) - under a cloud of suspicion from a previous case - he soon surmises that the perpetrators don't actually want the bank's money. Enter smarmy and elegant New York political insider Madeline White (Foster) who knows everybody and even has the ear of the Mayor.
Madeline is hired by the chairman of the bank's board of directors (Plummer) to oversee the crisis and make sure that certain secrets he has in his safe-deposit box stay secret. The bulk of the film involves the standoff between the bank robbers and the NYPD as they try frantically to ensure that the hostages remain safe.
Of course we know the hostages survive because Lee inserts interview footage of them after the heist is over, this device, however, tips off the outcome, dissipates suspense and quickly becomes tiresome. This is just one of the many techniques Lee uses to clutter the movie's structure and prevent the plot from unfolding as quickly as it should.
Obviously, everyone has something to hide, particularly the bank president, but when his past is revealed, it finally appears with a bit of a thud, with the movie going through to much difficulty to arrive at very little. In all fairness, Inside Man has some interesting things to say about race, money, power and the ethics of urban living, particularly in New York and the performances are wonderfully cynical and gritty.
Washington is sexy and strong, Foster is skillfully odious as the icy, sophisticated and amoral Madeline who cares for nothing but chasing big bucks, Owen is morbidly compelling as the determined heavy and Plummer is letter-perfect as the guilt-ridden bank honcho.
Lee, however, just doesn't seem able to bring all the disparate elements of a heist film into a convincing and gratifying whole and in the end; the movie is vaguely unsatisfying and impossibly far-fetched. Mike Leonard August 06.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nearly flawless caper film!, June 1, 2006
The first thing that attracted me to this film was the cast. Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer, Jodie Foster, heck Willem Dafoe is really a bit player in this one. Not to mention that Spike Lee, not one of my favorite directors, but certainly capable of telling a good story, and the potential was there for brilliance. By now, you know surely that the film deals with a heist of a bank, that the thieves are not after the normal booty that bank robbers go after, and that someone high up in the bank brass stands to lose very personally based on the actions of the thieves. What you may not know is why the movie is so much fun and so great to see.
Clive Owen owns this film. Yes, Denzel is great and carries his scenes well, but Owen has the task of not only convincingly playing a thief who is totally in control of the situation, he has to play the role in a way to illicit sympathy from the audience. He does both things masterfully. No doubt you will be in agreement that his performance is the landmark achievement of the movie and the reason it ultimately works. Washington is a good two dimensional character, blending his desire to take advantage of this one great chance he has at landing a plum role within the police department and the fact that he is personally struggling with the pressure of his girlfriend who wants to discuss "the M word" and wear something on a certain finger. In fact, this becomes a large part of the film, right up to the very end.
If I noted a couple of weaknesses in the film they would be these. Jodie Foster's character, while necessary, seems to distract from the action. Her role is somewhat important, but I wished she had not been there. Also, the film wraps up somewhat clumsily, as it feels that an extra scene or two should have been left out. This would have made the scenes after the main action feel much tighter. The very end of the film was the only time I felt any urge to look at my watch.
These are minor complaints, believe me. In the end, this is a winner, top to bottom. The scary thing about watching movies like this is that the idea the crooks had for robbing the bank is so smart, it will be a wonder if other people don't try it. The heist strategy made that much sense. I highly recommend this film. You won't regret it.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Sleeper - Really...., August 9, 2006
Everything about INSIDE MAN makes the viewer want to love this film: Spike Lee as director, a stunning cast, a good musical score that sounds a bit like Bollywood music, a theme that invites social comment.
For this viewer the terrific ingredients do not add up to a unique suspense thriller of a film. The story is a variation of hundreds of other films (writer Russell Gewirtz somehow got away with just an outline of a script of holes) and the technique of telling the story - interspersing post incident interviews with the people involved in the caper - makes it thud along.
Denzel Washington is his usual fine acting self, playing a cop with his own demons. Chiwetel Ejiofor is solid as his partner. Clive Owen spends the better part of the film behind a mask but continues his reputation for quiet and powerful characterizations as the bank robber. Christopher Plummer is convincing as the back president with secrets to hide, which Jodie Foster as a middle-woman manages to manipulate. Willem Defoe is fine as the cop in charge. They all perform well in roles they could do in their sleep.
Clocking in at over two hours the film seems to dawdle over some inconsequential details in an attempt to camouflage the holes in the script. Spike Lee makes it work because of his style. But in the end the story isn't involving enough to hold our attention ('been there, done that') and this viewer, for one, fell asleep during portions when the film slowed for unknown reasons. Love the director and the actors, pass on the film. Grady Harp, August 06
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