Not One Of Washington's Best

Rating: 5/10 (17 January 2015)

I REALLY wanted to enjoy Inside Man, but unfortunately, in the end, I thought it was just an OK action thriller and really wasn't anything special. Good story, great cast (and that's coming from a guy who's not a big fan of Clive Owen), and good plot twists. What else could a film need right? Well, for me, it needed a wee bit of pace to it. Don't get me wrong...it didn't have to go at 100mph like a Die Hard film, but it just moved a bit too slow I thought and just dragged on a wee bit. Spike Lee films do have a tendency to be on the slower side and that didn't bother me with the likes of Clockers, for instance, which I thought was a great film but Inside Man, however, fell slightly short of the action mark for an action/thriller.
The majority of the characters were pretty well done (even if some were your usual stereotypes for a Spike Lee movie), but the part of Madeleine White (played by Jodie Foster), when you think about it, really wasn't needed as she really added nothing to the film. Foster's character didn't do anything and it's like she was there just for the sake of being there.
Also, as a wee side note, I'm extremely thankful that the role of Washington's wife wasn't in the movie a lot because I don't think I could have stomached all the "hurry home, baby", "oh yeh baby", "love you baby", and the excruciatingly painful "Big Willie" line more than what I had to.
For me, it's the twists and turns that the story takes that keeps the film interesting, and there are a good few of them scattered throughout. The suspense that this all produces is good, but really nothing fantastic.
Overall, Inside Man was a decent action/thriller to watch, but Heat it most definitely wasn't. Not bad, but have seen much better.