Academy Award winner Denzel Washington, Academy Award nominee Clive Owen and Academy Award winner Jodie Foster star in this intense and explosive crime thriller. The perfect bank robbery quickly spirals into an unstable and deadly game of cat-and-mouse between a criminal mastermind (Owen), a determined detective (Washington), and a power broker with a hidden agenda (Foster). As the minutes tick by and the situation becomes increasingly tense, one wrong move could mean disaster for any one of them. From acclaimed director Spike Lee comes the edge-of-your-seat, action-packed thriller that The Wall Street Journal calls "a heist film that's right on the money."
Spike Lee scored his biggest hit to date with Inside Man, an unconventional thriller with fascinating details in the margins of its convoluted plot. The screenplay (by first-timer Russell Gerwitz) could've used a few more rewrites; it moves at a brisk pace but in hindsight a lot of it doesn't make sense. That makes Inside Man more fun to watch than to think about afterwards (when you discover plot holes big enough to drive a truck through), but it's curiously involving, especially as NYPD Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) struggles to outsmart a high-stakes bank robber (Clive Owen) who, along with a well-trained crew of accomplices, has seized control of a Wall Street bank, turning what initially looks like a hostage crisis into a personal crusade to expose some mysterious evil secrets. As you might expect from the director of Do the Right Thing, Lee seizes several satisfying opportunities to examine post-9/11 issues of racial prejudice and domestic terrorism, and the mysterious "problem solver" Madeline White (Jodie Foster), as eerily sinister as she is vaguely defined, is worthy of her own movie. With the benefit of his most stellar cast to date (including Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe and Chiwetel Ejiofor), Lee seems more interested in character details than well-crafted suspense, but that doesn't stop Inside Man from being engrossing, subtly amusing, and quirky enough to qualify as a welcomed break from the formulaic thrillers that are Hollywood's bread and butter.--Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
It's lacking some, but it makes up for it elsewhere...:
This film feels off when you compare it to the other films given to us by Spike Lee. I'm not saying that is a bad thing (we all know that I am not the biggest Spike Lee fan) but the fact that it doesn't truly feel like a Spike Lee film is significant. Sure, Lee inserts his views on race relations when he has the chance (please get off it for once) but the brisk pace and overall plot development feel like something far removed from director Spike Lee. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing to the viewer... more info
Almost perfect.:
Besides the great story, the acting, the cinematography then there is the music.
I can watch this movie over and over.
I am just waiting on the BlueRay version to buy it. This is Hollywood at it's best.
You think they could make more like these more often. Thank you.
must watch:
Just a great movie with great acting !!!! this movie was under advertised but was recommended by a friend. We could not believe how good it was we did not even know it was in the cinema. You will not be disappointed rent it now
Slick Production:
Spike Lee has directed a well crafted heist flick. Inside Man never sags and its all-star cast keeps the viewer glued to the storyline. Like all hostage negotiator films, Inside Man is a test of wits, but in this case the audience finds itself rooting for the negotiator (Danzel Washington) and the criminal (Clive Owen). Heist films usually flip the audience sympathies to the criminal side and hostage negotiator stories always pull for the brainy police specialist, so this dual audience loyalty is a... more info
