07/16/09 - Inside Man

Inside Man (2006, 129 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454848/

Rather than watch something new I choose to watch a film I've already seen before in Inside Man, a Spike Lee "joint". It's a fun movie that I liked but I didn't know how it would stand up to a second viewing where I knew most of what was going to happen.

The movie stars Denzel Washington as Detective Keith Frazier who is the negotiator for the robbery being conducted by Clive Owen's character, Dalton Russell. Jodie Foster as Madeline White and Christopher Plummer as Arthur Case who have conflicting interests with those of Frazier.

Movies of this sort are always fun to watch because you immediately choose a side you want to win. The hard part for the director is to make us like the side you don't want to win. In my case, I liked Russell, but Lee does a good job at making Frazier a good guy that you hate to see lose. However, the part with Frazier and the shady background dealings are pretty weak and are too cliché in my opinion to add anything to the story.

Another complaint I have with this film is the sub-plot involving White and Case. The overall story here is weak, especially Foster's White. While Foster does a good job with the acting here and completely owns the role, the character just seems unnecessary. While the Case character is important for the plot's sake and for Lee to push his point, Foster's character could've been done better in my opinion.

The robbery itself is the other main part of the movie and it's really fun to watch. Whereas in Dog Day Afternoon we have everything going wrong that could go wrong in this movie we have everything marching along to the whim and desire of Russell. It's quite opposite approaches to the bank robbery genre. While it's fun in it's own right, the sheer "perfection" that Russell uses makes the film less enjoyable.

Overall, I gave this film a 7/10. The second view still held up quite well and knowing what was coming made some of the lines pretty cool that were obvious misses the first time around. Clive Owen and Denzel Washington are great actors and put on a very good show.