Crap!

Rating: 4/10 (27 April 2006)

Without a doubt, the biggest pile of excrement loaded onto movie viewers this year. Two hours to release a plot that could have taken ten minutes to occur. The utter pretentiousness of this movie left me stunned.
Denzel is usually hit or miss with his movies. I don't know who his agent is, but he is not doing himself any favors by starring in roles like this.
The film tries so hard to give us witty banter and clever dialog and fails miserably. At one point, Clive Owen, the chief bank robber, calls the police to give them a riddle and the police fall over themselves trying to solve it. Why? Hey, there are live HOSTAGES in the bank waiting to be saved. Who cares, bring them sandwiches? Was someone drunk when they wrote this script?
Jodie Foster turns up as this mystery problem solver who walks into a hostage situation to offer the chief bad guy a choice. Really? Police and SWAT teams let this happen all the time. An unknown woman, who could be a kidnapper herself: Please, go on in and do your thing.
There is a disturbing scene of racism as the police steal the turban off the head of a sikh and then as he complains about racism, the police interviewers tell him he shouldn't have a problem getting a cab. I don't know what point Spike Lee was trying to accomplish with this scene but it just seemed woefully inappropriate. Racist remarks are sprinkled throughout the movie and it seems like Mr. Lee has jumped on the Crash bandwagon. Not a good sign of where his direction has headed.
I am reading the reviews of this movie on IMDb and I can't believe it. This movie is not only bad, it would be laughable bad if it wasn't so boring. Please Mr. Lee, if your return involves releasing another steaming crap pile like this, stay in retirement. Has to be seen to be believed.