It'll be great on Cable TV

Rating: 6/10 (21 March 2006)

This is not the best work of Spike, Denzel, Jodie or Clive, but still this film is worth a look. I decided to see it because I am passionately in love with New York and thought a native film maker would give the city the loving care it needs.
While I cannot say I was disappointed in the overall film, I can say that this film barely used more than a handful of NYC's locations. In it we saw a few Manhattan sites: inside the Wall Street area bank, the streets outside the downtown bank, the spectacular offices of the bank's chairman, inside the apartment that the Denzel character shares with his incredibly attractive on-screen girlfriend and a fancy restaurant in midtown. That's it.
A basic bank heist film, Inside Man lacks the complexities of a "Dog Day Afternoon," but does deliver on some of the basic insecurities of a post 9/11 city in transition, including the otherness of anyone who appears to be Arab (and this case a Sikh gentlemen), the lack of resources afforded the NYPD (who are left to search through a crowd to determine the language someone is speaking) and the fears of those who are comforted by a street sign (in this case the backdrop of an outdoor board that cries out 'we will never forget').
Still on an up note I will say that in INSIDE MAN,
a. Denzel Washington proves he has the comedic chops to stand up to anyone as he delivers line after hilarious line that leaves the audience chuckling out loud and that
b. Spike Lee and Jodie Foster have the guts to portray a woman of a certain age as she is - Botox free and full of normal, pretty wrinkle, unlike her contemporaries the Desperate Housewives.
If you are looking for SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT, look elsewhere. INSIDE MAN is not as good. If you are looking for SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, look elsewhere; this is not as good. If you are looking for MALCOLM X, look else where; this is not as good.
But if you are looking for a fun little date movie or a great cable find, tune it. INSIDE MAN leaves you with a lot to think about in almost the same way that Oscar Wilde's A PERFECT HUSBAND does. It leaves you to think about how your past can almost always find you.