Inside Man, 2006

Inside Man tries to be a mind blowing heist movie and in the end doesn't quite measure up to either the mind blowingness of The Usual Suspects or to the cleverness of a great heist movie like Thomas Crown Affair. But it's still good enough to be worth watching if you're looking for a movie in this genre.

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Inside Man has some enjoyable dialogue, although a lot of the humor in it and the stalling tactic of the plot can chip away at the suspense at times. The plot twists are there, but are not that big a payoff in my opinion. This movie begins and ends with the great A. R. Rahman hit "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from from the Bollywood movie Dil Se, a great song but one that seems out of place. I think this movie must have gotten its R rating mainly for its generous use of the F word (and one C word), although there are a couple of instances of quick, hazy violence. This is one I seem to be appreciating slightly more as time passes, I may give it another watch sometime down the road.

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Spike Lee's Inside Man is a meticulous, engrossing and fun bank heist movie. This is the kind of movie that Hollywood rarely makes anymore: an intelligent genre film for adults. In an age of the cynical, eye-winking reference genre movie it is refreshing to see a group of filmmakers and performers putting together such a wonderful pure genre flick, without condescension or pretentiousness. I think the best thing about Inside Man is that it will be Spike Lee's coming out party as a pure filmmaker. I think a lot of people may have dismissed or ignored Lee as a filmmaker due to the controversial nature of the films he has made in the past (they shouldn't have, but I think it's a knee-jerk reaction). Unburdened by making an "important" movie, Spike Lee is able to display his superb filmmaking skills to the rest of the world. With the help of Director of Photography Matthew Libatique, Spike Lee makes Inside Man is a visual treat. As always, Lee does a superb job of filming New York City. The city is a jungle of iron and steel. He does a particularly masterful job of doing this in the opening credit sequence where shots of the bank robbers driving to the site of the heist are intercut with shots of the gothic and pagan statues hewn into the architecture of the bank (images that become more and more appropriate as more secrets of the plot are revealed). Like I said above, this is not an "important" Lee film but he still effortlessly paints a portrait of a multi-cultural New York and captures both the tension and harmony of lots of different people living so close to one another. This is an expertly made film that is smart, fun and intriguing. It will appeal to both Spike Lee fans and movie lovers. It won't win any awards but it is time well spent at the movies and all it's cracked up to be.

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A really clever and witty movie. In the bank robbery genre this film is one of the greatest. Keeps the audience guessing from the beginning until the last minute. Full of manipulations and mind games with the law. The twists and turns aren't expected at all, making the film even better.

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