‘Inside Man’ hits top notch

Whenever you see that a movie is a Spike Lee joint, you know you are in for something special. He is the previous director of other great films such as 25th Hour, Do The Right Thing, and X (Malcolm X). Over time, Spike has not only grown into a greater director but because of this and his ability to acquire great screenplays, he is also able to get some of the best talent in town to work on his films.

In his most recent film, “Inside Man,” Spike assembles another great cast of Academy Award winning or nominated actors such as Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Willem Dafoe, Jodie Foster and Christopher Plummer.

The film opens with a bank robbery in progress at a popular Manhattan bank. The team of robbers is led by Clive Owen, who plays a man with unknown motives which we later find out by the end of the film. Denzel Washington, a detective, gets a call and is told to report to the scene and negotiate with the robbers inside, since his character is both famous and infamous with previous robberies in the past. Willem Dafoe plays one of the captains of the police squad, assisting Denzel’s character with the negotiation. Not only is the situation that already exists between Owen and Washington tense with a cat and mouse scenario, but then Christopher Plummer’s character (who is the bank owner) hires Jodie Foster (a power broker) to make sure a safety deposit box stays closed.

This movie has been reviewed by some critics as the best Spike Lee joint in years: hugely entertaining, and needs to be seen. The acting performances in the film are ones to be remembered as well as the directing style used in the film of a gritty, urban nature. There are many sequences shot that have not been done before in film, look out especially for the scene when a hostage gets shot and what happens when Washington reacts.

As for myself, I would say this film most certainly deserves 5 out of 5 paws. If you are not a big fan of coarse language and violence, then you would not be a big fan of this film.

This film has a wide release, can be viewed at any local theater and has a running time of 130 minutes, so be sure to take your bathroom break before the feature starts because you will not want to miss any minute once the film has started.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 7 2006. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry