Lee's half-baked homage to "Dog Day Afternoon"

Rating: 6/10 (27 March 2006)

INSIDE MAN (2006) ** _ Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Carlos Andres Gomez, Kim Director, James Ransone, Peter Gerety, Samantha Ivers. High concept bank robbery melodrama from filmmaker Spike Lee seems like a departure but really is a half-baked homage to one of his favorite '70s films, "Dog Day Afternoon", with an under-investigation NYC police detective (Washington having a ball) assigned to a Wall St. area bank robbery led by no-nonsense Owen who may or may not have something up his sleeve in perfecting the perfect crime. Foster's mysterious woman who gets things done via the most unusual negotiations is a neat wrinkle to an otherwise simplistic and overwrought screenplay by novice scribe Russell Gewirtz yet the on location settings add authenticity to how New Yorkers take their crime seriously.