A good effort, but needs to be more cohesive

Rating: 7/10 (1 February 2007)

It's a new Spike Lee joint! So inside man is basically a caper/hostage negotiation drama. It's got all the typical things you'd see in these types of films. Cops. Robbers. Hostages. Intricate plots. But... no daring chases, no real flashy action... and so it's mostly the drama (and bits of comedy).
In the end, the film feels sort of real and sort of unreal at the same time. The direction and the writing speak very much to the realness of the "regular characters." The regulars being the cops, the hostages, the citizens on the street. But the "powerful" characters, as well as the lead robber character are a little surreal. Not to say that they're bad, but the powerful characters are the ones that seem to come more out of the typical caper films and the regular characters out of more ordinary dramas. This clash has a slightly negative effect because it makes it hard to get "in" to the film.
Although Spike Lee has a directorial flash and style all his own, at the same time, he hasn't yet been able to make it a standard language of his cinema, so when you need a backwards dolly-shot with Denzel Washington on what looks like a people mover you remember that you're watching a movie. It knocks you out of the film. The interview segments that intercut the action are less jarring since the film begins with Clive Owen in an interview.
However, the plotting is clever, the humor is believable and enjoyable and the racial undertones to parts of the film are appreciable without being overdone. The weakness is in the total cohesion and the suspension of disbelief. It felt like there were two films being made of different tones and there were combined in this movie and didn't entirely get along. But a good effort. Spike, keep at it.
Finally, Inside Man didn't feel very theatrical. Probably because it didn't immerse me that well in its world. So I'd say it's a rental. A flawed, but good effort. And certainly not a bad choice to watch... although by no means necessary. 7/10.