Very Entertaining Heist Film

Rating: 8/10 (24 March 2006)

All in all this movie was thoroughly entertaining. The heist plan was very ingenious, most of the main actors turned in great performances (particularly Denzel and Owens), the soundtrack was great and the movie was genuinely funny at times. In the age of the ten dollar movie, this was totally worth the money.
That being said, there were a few things that knocked this movie down a few points. Firstly, some of the dialogue sounded very forced and unnatural (but surprisingly this only seemed to happen in the first half of the movie). Secondly, some of the ethnic characters which Spike Lee used in an attempt to show the true spirit of New York were clichéd at best and stereotypical at worst. Thirdly, the second half of the movie also seemed to be more interesting visually as Spike Lee employed some interesting camera work to give the movie a slightly different feel. Although the camera work in the first half was pretty solid, the movie could have been even better had Lee used some of this innovative camera work throughout the whole thing.
Anyway, the bottom line is, go see this movie, you'll certainly be entertained and it'll definitely be worth the ten bucks.
8/10