Spike Goes Hollywood. Again. Rejoice!

Rating: 5/10 (21 March 2006)

"Inside Man" is great fun. As you must know from the extensive advertising campaign and marketing blitz, it's the story of a bank robbery, which is not really a bank robbery. What? Who? Why? See the film, and find out the somewhat disappointing answer. But getting there, for two hours, is entertaining and fun.
But no more than that. Yes, you've got Spike Lee's caustic humor and a few fascinating characters, but it's not a thinking person's thriller - just a thriller, albeit one that makes bathroom breaks difficult to find.
Denzel Washington, playing the chief police negotiator, is at his best, as the very human, street-smart, and persistent detective. Something is wrong with Jodie Foster's high-powered "arranger," something not quite right in her portrayal of the mysteriously powerful woman, who fixes things, at a price.
First-time script writer Russell Gewirtz does well, Matthew Libatique's cinematography is superb; he is responsible for Lee's "She Hate Me" as well as for "Gothika" and the "Phone Booth," and he does a simple-and-effective job here that's admirable.
PS: Two first-class movies now have come and gone, disappearing almost instantly. Catch up with them on DVD: Tommy Lee Jones' "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" and Sidney Lumet's "Find Me Guilty." Yes, the latter just opened, but it's going away already. Such a shame. Both are significantly more substantial than "Inside Man," which will rake it in.