Well made absolutely, but a hair long, and a hair routine...

Rating: 7/10 (1 March 2015)

Inside Man (2006)
An attempt at the mainstream by Spike Lee, and a really solid bank heist movie with Clive Owen and Denzel Washington at the two poles of the story, bad guy and good guy. The meaning of the title isn't clear until the last five minutes.
Heist movies are partly about the mechanics and ingenuity of the plan, and this one is good. At first it all unfolds with alarming routine, but Lee manages to change it up after awhile by have some flash-forwards that make us re-evaluate the main plot as it happens. There are a couple of sub-plots and one of them, using Jodie Foster, is important but forced on us. But the main heist isn't enough for a full blooded movie of this kind, so there is a script weakness somewhere here.
Washington as the main detective (embattled, of course) is charming and effective. He can make any movie click in his scenes. And Owen is strong in his own usual way, but we get a weirdly limited view of him because he is almost always covered with hood, mask, and sunglasses. No facial intensity here.
The filming is pure Lee, with lots of moving camera and a few simple special effects, elegant and oddly a hair old fashioned. In fact, as much as I admire Lee's best films, you get a sense he's riding an old wave, a little like Woody Allen (another NYC auteur director) keeps an older style going even in his most recent films. If, for a comparison, David Fincher had made "Inside Man" I think we would see some kind of verve and intensity and originality that Lee somehow avoids.
But well made this is, and don't get it wrong, if you like crime and caper movies at all, this is one to see. I wish there was a director's cut that was 20 minutes shorter, but nestle on the couch and let it flow.