No Director Wants His Movie to be Seen as a "Time-Waster"

Rating: 6/10 (25 February 2014)

Eight years ago, I saw the preview of Spike Lee's Inside Man, and I thought that this would be a great use of entertainment dollars. Here it is, all those years later, and I have to confess I didn't mind watching it for free on TV. It's not that Inside Man is a bad movie. It's just so, so much less than meets the eye.
Here we have a cast to die for--Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, and Willem Dafoe. They all do yeoman work, and Ms. Foster has to be one of the most brutally attractive women I've ever seen. Plummer, as usual, oozes spotless evil. Dafoe has a fairly thankless part as a SWAT commander. Washington looks cool in a baggy suit and snappy fedora.
The odd man out here is Clive Owen as the head of a team of bank robbers who have a motive other than money. I don't know him, and if this is any indication of the man's talent, I don't need to know him.
Yet.
Inside Man fulfilled its mission--for the viewer to be entertained just enough, challenged just enough, and pleased just enough to forgive how vacant a movie this really is. I got done with the USA Network broadcast, popped out the disk, and fell asleep.
Good movies make it difficult to nod off, and then I dream about them.
I had a dreamless night after watching Inside Man.