By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Spike Lee
Starring: Cassandra Freeman | Chiwetel Ejiofor | Christopher Plummer | Clive Owen | Denzel Washington | Jodie Foster | Peter Kybart | Willem Dafoe
Country: united_states
Year: 2006
Running time: 129
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454848/
Bruce says: “Spike Lee is one of four directors who have defined New York City on film over the past six decades. The others
are Woody Allen, Sidney Lumet, and Martin Scorsese. Early in Lee’s career it appeared he was most similar to Scorsese and Allen in the dogged exploration of his ethnicity. With films such as INSIDE MAN and THE 25TH HOUR and CLOCKERS, Lee is now getting closer to Lumet in style and subject matter. In case the viewer doesn’t catch on to that fact, INSIDE MAN goes so far as to directly reference DOG DAY AFTERNOON as an inspiration for INSIDE MAN’s bank robbers who are demanding buses for hostages and a getaway jet on the JFK runway. Now anyone who has seen DOG DAY AFTERNOON knows that is a pretty dumb request. Or is it smarter than it appears?
“Clive Owen pays Dalton Russell, the ever-so-cool mastermind of a would-be bank robbery at the staid Manhattan Trust in the heart of Wall Street. In the process several dozen bank employees and customers are taken hostage. Denzel Washington and Chiwetel Ejiofor are the detectives who specialize in hostage negotiations. Christopher Plummer is Arthur Case, the Manhattan
Trust CEO with a checkered past. Jodie Foster, the film’s dues ex machina, plays a smug, self-assured powerbroker who is enlisted to be an intermediary. Peter Kybart is the Mayor of New York who trades favors with his close friends. All the characters, save Arthur Case, find great humor in the circumstances that bind them one to another.
“When the bank robbers force all the hostages to strip to their underwear and don the same attire and masks as the bank robbers themselves, the robbers and hostages become indistinguishable. The plot is extraordinarily engaging, albeit slightly flawed. The so-flip-it hurts dialogue adds a lot of pizzazz to the proceedings. In the end, no bank robbery has occurred, no hostages have been harmed and no perpetrators have been identified, adding up to an unusually clever caper. The fast-paced banter describes New York as much as the set design. Some might say that INSIDE MAN is as much about race as CRASH. That could be but this somewhat politically incorrect film scores a lot more points as it pokes fun at racism. Lee’s use of a flash forward technique to show hostages and bank robber’s being interviewed after the heist is over simply doesn’t work, which is a shame considering how much overall attention he has paid to detail.
“Keep your eye on Cassandra Freeman who plays Denzel Washington’s girlfriend. She almost steals every scene she’s in. 4 cats”