interesting thriller

Rating: 7/10 (3 June 2006)

OK, so you have to suspend some belief. Was it supposed to be guilt that led someone to keep 50+ year old incriminating documents? If you can accept that, it's pretty interesting to watch and figure out what's going on.
I generally like Spike Lee films, but as always he does have issues with his women. I love Jodie Foster but her character was one dimensional. There was no explanation of who she was, how she got that way or how she could wield any power. Denzel's gf despite being a cop in her own right was just shown a few times lying around in lingerie waiting for him to come home while he's busy working on a huge hostage situation. The trampy gum smoking Albanian immigrant. I guess I should feel glad that the hostage woman was ignored, except of course for them trying to identify her by her bust size.
Overall, it was worth watching. It gave enough clues so you could try to figure stuff out, but also kept you guessing til the end. As usual, there's some small moments highlighting racial issues (I liked the commentary on "Grand Theft Auto" game that encourages violence and sexism) or a Sikh victim being automatically treated as a criminal/terrorist. I also liked the fact that they had a diverse multiracial, cross gender/cross age group of robbers.