Inside Man

Continuing my plan to watch every movie in Denzel Washington's filmography, I come to his first movie of 2006, Inside Man

Denzel says "You saw 'Dog Day Afternoon.' You're stalling." The problem with name checking an amazing movie, is it just reminds you, you'd rather be watching that.

I remember liking this one, but I found it to be a let down, this time around. I found myself picking fault after fault with the movie. It's routine, cliche and not as clever as it thinks it is.

Christopher Plummer, as the bank president, doesn't look in his 90s, which he'd need to be given his role.

Clive Owen (Who we see in the first shot of the film, talking about the crime in the past tense, we know he won't be killed) says at the beginning "I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself" but he will say "two busses and a plane" several times, including one where he says "I've already told you" and he repeats himself to Jodie Foster, too.

Who is Jodie Foster's character?? I've just watched the movie and do not know!! She was so smug, and I was dying to see her exposed, but nothing came of it!! Great legs, though!

Every police interview is conducted without a single lawyer

The movie is well acted, but with three Oscar winners (Denzel, Jodie Foster and Christopher Plummer) and three Oscar nominees (Willem Defoe, Clive Owen and Chiwetel Ejiofor) it's not surprising. And it does have some good ideas, but a lot of it, is just filler, padding out a bloated runtime, like Denzel's check cashing, coke bust hanging over his head or most of the scene's involving Jodie Foster, the possible outcomes of them storming the bank and all the talk about Big Willie and the twins.

I didn't hate the movie, but I remember it being better.

Inside Man was the 4th highest grossing movie of Denzel's career (behind Remember The Titans, The Pelican Brief, Crimson Tide) grossing $88 million at the domestic box office and was the 22nd highest grossing movie of 2006. His 5th best performing movie (behind The Pelican Brief, Crimson Tide, Philadelphia and Remember The Titans) at the time.

An ordinary day in a major bank, a man dressed as a painter walks in and points torches at the CCTV cameras. Seconds later more people dressed as painters burst in and announce their intentions to all inside. As the hostages are professionally moved into a group and made to dress in the same suits as the robbers, the alarm is raised by a passing cop. For Detective Frazier this is just what he needs to help take his mind off accusations of corruption and girlfriend stress. With a by-the-book hostage situation in front of him things look good but internal and external pressures soon convince him that things are not as straightforward as he first thought.

With the trailer offering a great Saturday night, twisty crime thriller, a heavy cast and a strange directorial choice in Lee, this was a film I was hoping would be glossy, slick, silly and fun. However, although I enjoyed it for what it was, I must confess that the lack of consistent direction and pace made it more difficult to get into than I had hoped. It isn't like this at first, with the film jumping right into a very slick taking of the bank and establishing a professional group of thieves to content with. Bringing in Frazier continues this delivery because he has a good swagger to him and it looked like they would pull off this film. You see, things like this need pace and energy and direction – like sharks, they need to keep moving forward or they die; they die by letting the audience question things or move back off the edge of their seat to a vantage point of criticism. With things like Phone Booth, we were never allowed to step back and thus it worked; however here it tries to do other things (to its credit) but these produce an irregular pace, inconsistent tone and tend to take away from the central, gripping action without putting in more than they take out.

It still works but it steps away from the robbery too often to touch on other areas. Now these areas could have been a great compliment to the main thread but they don't work as well as they should. The external pressures from Madeline White should have increased the tension in the film but instead they were mostly separate – interesting still but not complimentary. It doesn't help that many of the twists are obvious (certainly the reason for the robbery was obvious – even if it is never actually explained or justified that well) and when the final one does come it is delivered too slowly and reduces its impact. The film is funny and this works quite nicely without slowing things down. The device of the interviews as jumps forward is interesting but unfortunately it tells the audience too much and spoils some of the later action by making it too predictable. Like I said, I still enjoyed it but at times I found myself bothered by the impression that it was a genre movie actively trying not to be a genre movie and only hurting itself in the progress.

Visually the film is impressive even if occasionally it felt inappropriate for the material. The movement of the camera, the lush shots of New York, the "chest-cam" shots and the use of music are all unmistakably Spike Lee and it looks great for it. At times it is a bit obtrusive and almost feels too grand for the material but it is hard to criticise a great director (which is what I personally think Lee is) for having his own style and feel, even if at times he is a fault for reducing the pace and energy of the material. He shows that, although his personal films are more interesting, he can do a good job as director-for-hire as well. The cast are impressive on paper but the delivery means they are not all that good. Foster is a good example, she is a solid presence but her material is weak and half-done and I personally felt she could have been totally removed from the film without any great detriment. Washington is cool in the lead and gives a lively genre performance. The film suggests that he thought he was doing more than just a genre film and there are bits of his character that don't work – his eclectic wardrobe is one but his past and his girlfriend are also threads that don't work that well. Owen is lucky enough to have the best material and despite a so-so accent he does convince and drives the film forward. His motivations and background are annoying question marks but this is not his fault – it is the fault of the delivery that let me question things rather than rushing forward at full speed. Ejiofor is good and works well despite having little to work with. Dafoe is a nice addition but I did feel his material could have been done by someone less famous just as well as he did. Plummer starts the film with such an air of a "powerful old man with sinister secret" that you never doubt for second where the film is taking him – again not all his fault but he is not used at all well.

Despite all my misgivings, the film did do enough to engage me and entertain me on a Saturday night as I suspect it will many viewers. However in the cold light of day the film does have threads that don't work and problems relating to pacing and inconsistency in tone. Funnily enough it is actually the irregular pace that reveals the problems whereas it is had played itself as a straight genre film then it would have covered these with pace and energy. Worth seeing but by not being a straight genre film it manages to be both stronger and weaker at the same time.

'Inside Man' engages the viewer from the opening scene through the credits. One of the better Heist films one can watch, with an all-star cast of highly-accomplished actors delivering the goods. Recommended viewing!

No ordinary film maker, Lee taps his expertise in film making, applying superior cinematography, editing, and direction skills.

Headlining the film is Denzel Washington as the good guy cop, and Clive Owen as the highly intelligent robber (with the screen-play thankfully avoiding the crazy/insane cliche' Bond movie villain characterization).

"Filling-in" as good as one will find in bank robber caper films are the superior supporting cast performances of Christopher Plummer (who has never delivered anything sub-par in his career), Jodie Foster (effectively playing against her "type"), Willem Dafoe (over-due for an Oscar), Chiwetel Ejiofor (perfect subtle side-arm detective partner to Denzel), and across the board good performances by the entire supporting ensemble cast.

Lee doesn't try to play out the big surprise ending cliche', but instead allows one to piece things together as the film unfolds, letting us "in" to the narrative piece by piece. This is refreshing and elevates the film overall.

Really hard to find any critical piece missing in the film. Editing and pacing excellent, and even the potentially preposterous story idea works. Yes there are a few "identifying the magician's tricks" moments inside what could have been a perceived as an over the top narrative, but one overlooks those because this is quite the entertaining film and it is put together so well - Witty dialogue delivered by some of the all-time great actors who were perfectly cast on their parts.

Bravo to all concerned👏, and two thumbs up!👍👍

Inside Man tells the story of a man named Dalton Russel, who leads a daring bank robbery that turns into a hostage situation. Now he's dealing with disgraced hostage negotiator Keith Frazier, who is attempting to get to the bottom of things. When the shady CEO of the bank and a woman he's hired to help him protect certain interests arrive, he begins to discover that there's more to this bank robbery than it would seem. This is the only Spike Lee movie I've ever seen, but trust me, I'll see more, since this was a very intriguing film.

What I liked about Inside Man was the style it was made. It is choppy, but not so choppy that it's annoying (cough, Domino, cough, Man on Fire), so you get a sense of tension, and it seems very high paced. The plot is good, and very intriguing. There are some things you have to figure out throughout the film, which makes it more interesting. My only problem was that after the bank robbery was over, the film continued for another half hour, and it started to drag a bit. The dialogue in the movie is very cool. There's some humorous and some awesome lines that come out of the character's mouths.

The acting is very good. Denzel Washington is good as always as Det. Keith Frazier. Clive Owen gives a solid performance as Dalton Russell. I liked Willem Dafoe and Christopher Plummer. Jodie Foster wasn't as good as she usually is, but she's not in the movie a whole lot.

Overall, the movie lags toward the end, but it's intriguing and has an awesome plot.

7/10

Note: I stay away from describing the plot in any detail because it would be very hard to do so without spoiling elements of it. "Inside Man" starts out as a no holds barred, high octane action-thriller, and by its midpoint fully transforms into a breezy, tongue-in-cheek heist movie, reminiscent of The Sting. I felt it to be a little over-plotted, but that comes with the genre - the expected twists and turns are all here, thankfully mostly in non-expected ways. Contrivances abound, and we don't really learn the background of the heist (ie. how the robbers learned about their target) but the story and the overall atmosphere more than make up for this. The meticulously designed plot also compensates for the lack of real 3D characterization - save for Denzel Washington's ambitious policeman hero, who at least achieves a level of humanity throughout the story. The character interaction between him and his sidekick (Chiwetel Ejiofor of "Serenity" fame) and the frustrated captain played by Willem Defoe is great with some sparkling dialog. Clive Owen is okay, most of the time convincing as the criminal mastermind, although he spends most of the film wearing a mask. I'd say this film is harmless fun, not your usual Spike Lee fare, which goes to prove his versatility. There is a hint in the back-story at some heavy issues of the past, but it's nothing more than a macguffin that only achieves some slight significance in the resolution of the movie. There is a neat structural trickery in the use of flash-forward scenes, hinting toward the aftermath of the heist without giving away the real ending. It's used sparingly and cleverly. I can highly recommend this movie, it is never boring for a moment, what's more, I was enjoying it so much that as events were progressing toward the climax, I was wishing it would go on. And that's very rare for me in the movies nowadays.