Improbable story, implausible characters

Rating: 5/10 (27 May 2007)

One would not expect a standard thriller or average crime movie with Spike Lee as a director. And yes, "Inside man" is on the first glance a lot more creative than the average bank-robber film.
But what makes a movie about robbing a bank and taking hostages interesting after all?
It could be

documentary

psychological

action oriented

concentrated on an interesting criminal plan

"Dog day afternoon" for example was mainly psychological and brilliant at that. "Quick Change" is an example for interesting plots.
"Inside man" tries to balance between these poles and adds some politics into the storyline. However there is no in depth psychological insight in the main criminal character. Likewise there is no real explanation of the main character's motives and intentions.
So the movie is (for a while) lingering in a psychological confrontation of these characters. As there is no inner development this confrontation remains simply uninteresting.
Fortunately the storyline does not insist on this element but rather explores the intricate plan behind the crime. The criminals and the hostages are dressed the same way and thus are indiscernible. So police has to sort out who is victim and who is gangster afterwards. That could have been highly entertaining.
But that's the point where the side plot takes over. The owner of the bank has some dark Nazi secrets and some diamonds stored in a safe deposit box. Guess what everyone's after? Guess what the whole plot's about?
How disappointing!