Entertaining to a point

Rating: 6/10 (12 August 2006)

When is a bank robbery not a bank robbery? That is the million dollar question in Spike Lee's INSIDE MAN, a tricky crime thriller starring Denzel Washington and Clive Owen. Bad guy Owen is holding 50 people hostage during what appears to be the robbery of a Manhattan-based bank, and Washington is a stressed-out, possibly larcenous detective who must talk Owen into releasing the hostages and giving himself up. The first half of INSIDE MAN is a gritty, fast-paced crime yarn, while the second is an intellectual exercise in piecing together just what happened while the bank was under siege. INSIDE MAN is Washington's film all the way, a huge improvement over OUT OF TIME, his last outing as a stressed-out, possibly larcenous law enforcer. Everyone else -- Owen as the bank robber-not-bank-robber, WIllem Dafoe as a fellow cop, Christopher Plummer as the bank's shady president and Jodie Foster as an even shadier "fixer" who poses as a real estate mogul -- plays second fiddle to Washington in this one. Is INSIDE MAN a must-see? Not by a long shot, especially with a second half that crawls to the finish and distracting cinematography as the film jumps back and forth in time. Is it a compelling bank heist yarn? Not really, once we understand the bigger picture, which unfortunately is telegraphed early on. But the movie should make for a pleasant, nothing-else-to-do kind of evening viewing, if nothing else just to watch Washington in action.