Spike Lee puts together A-list cast

Rating: 6/10 (16 June 2014)

Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) talks about a perfect bank robbery from what looks like a prison cell. Police detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington), still in the dog house for something, is given the bank robbery. Detective Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is his partner. There are hostages. The bank president Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer) has something important in a safe deposit box. He brings in fixer Madeleine White (Jodie Foster). Captain John Darius (Willem Dafoe) is the uniform cop in charge of the crime scene. The robbers seem more interested in the storage room than the bank vault or the deposit boxes.
Director Spike Lee is making a stylized robbery. It's wall to wall A-list stars. That's actually distracting to have so many stars scattered in one movie. It takes away from any realism that Spike wants to inject into this movie. Also everything Spike does here is pointing to a surprise reveal. There is teasing, but this is over teasing. Everything is a mystery. Wink! Wink! Again it takes away from any realism. The mysteries are compelling for awhile but it gets tiresome.
The reveals are the biggest aspects of this movie. It's a shocking reveal and the jolt is quite enjoyable. But the more one thinks about it, the more problematic it gets. I have questions about the investigation. I have questions about the scheme. The cops should have used a re-enactment to place everybody in their spot. There is also video of the customers before the robbery. The investigation should be able to narrow the suspects much better. Then they should have tailed the suspects. I have questions that don't get answered.