Made no sense.

Rating: 5/10 (4 June 2006)

This rough story just had nothing to it. First, in walked Denzel, with an ego so big, I was surprised his head fitted through the door. He mostly played the part of a hostage negotiator, even though he wasn't a hostage negotiator-if that makes any sense.
Not far behind was Jodie Foster, who looked seriously wasted. Like she had a big-time drug problem, or was totally anorexic, or whatever it is that the Hollywood elite get up to. She was probably brought in to help break up the story into bite-sized chunks, or scene switching, as it is known. But her role was so flimsy, you could have cut her out of the story all together and it would have made no difference.
The story itself revolved around a gang of bank robbers, who raided a bank, but stole nothing?? Apparently, this was done to draw the police's attention to a safety deposit box, which held evidence linking the bank's boss to Nazi dealings, during the second world war. What the exact nature of the dealings were, was never revealed.
The bank robbers must have been very righteous and honourable people, risking a lifetime of imprisonment simply to get the truth out. Why they couldn't have gone to the police, got a search warrant, and disclosed everything, is beyond me. Instead, they beat, humiliated and stripped the hostages, who amounted to nothing more than innocent civilians, and probably traumatised them for life. It is difficult to build sympathy with the public, no matter how righteous your cause, by degrading helpless captives like this. I fully agree that Nazi collaborators should be exposed and punished, but victimising the most vulnerable people in our society, namely the old, and children. Yes, a young child was also in there, is difficult to swallow. It did not seem to fit in with the honourable intent of the bank robbers, to tie, drag and traumatise these people. Overall, not a bad movie. Could have been better with more thought.