Great Fun

Rating: Null/10 (29 February 2008)

Inside Man (2006)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
A man (Clive Owen) robs a bank and a hostage negotiator (Denzel Washington) must find out why he's demands don't make too much sense. When I first heard about this movie I asked myself if we really needed another heist movie but apparently we do because director Spike Lee takes a basic story and takes it in every direction that we don't normally see. There's a mystery lady (Jodie Foster) who shows up and her secret, as well as the robber's secret, really make this a very interesting film. I was a little caught off guard at first on how Lee was showing clips from the aftermath but in the end these worked perfectly well. I liked the fact that this really wasn't like any other heist film I had seen, although, in funny fashion, Lee does wink at other films in the genre including one joke in regards to Dog Day Afternoon. Owen and Washington do excellent work and the scenes of them together are quite good as we see two great actors trying to out act one another. Lee manages to sneak in various messages about race as well as other political issues but he does these very nicely without then taking over the actual story. I'm pretty sure I'll like this one even more with a second viewing.