"Inside Man"

Denzel Washington
Clive Owen
Jodie Foster
Christopher Plummer
Willem DaFoe
Chiwetel Ejiofor


R 129min 2006

“Inside Man” is about a bank robbery and the cat mouse game played between the owner of the bank, the robbers, and the cops sent in to diffuse the escalating hostage situation.

Inside Man is Denzel Washington and Spike Lee’s fourth collaboration and is a more commercial movie than most expect from Spike Lee. It is an exciting film that puts a turn on the bank heist movie. As I watched this movie I wondered why it was never tried. Once you sit back and think about it so many things were left to risk, that things could have gone wrong and changed the outcome of this film.

This film works because of Spike Lee direction and the cast put together. Inside Man is lead superbly by Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster. The supporting cast is just as strong too featuring Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, you may not know his name but you’ve seen his face. He was in Serenity, Four Brothers and Love Actually.

It made sense and was suspenseful to the end. It wasn’t black or white but the true color of life… gray. It’s your morality that should tell you who is good and who is bad. Even though Spike Lee clearly defines the good and bad.

Overall “Inside Man” is a good film, with patented Spike shot. It tales a very good story with a bank heist as a backdrop and a stellar cast. If you like and member of this cast you won’t be disappointed. The DVDs has twenty minutes of re-cut or deleted scenes and a nice little interview with Spike Lee and Denzel Washington talking about their 4 collaborations.

I give it a 4/5 Gs