reviewed by Brian "The Naked Gun" Felts
& Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell
If you are a movie audience member who has often asked, "Where can I find a movie that had an all-star cast, a billy badass leading man, and a plot that meanders for what seems like hours?" Well dear audience member I give you Inside Man, a movie that has great actors, good acting, but a forgettable story.
Clive Owen (Derailed,) a.k.a. the actor who should be James Bond, is Dalton Russell, who along with his gang of five, attempt to rob a bank in New York. Detective Keith Frazier, portrayed by Denzel Washington (Man On Fire,) who is under investigation by internal affairs for missing money in a drug bust, is sent by his captain to solve the problem. The owner of the bank, Arthur Case, played by Christopher Plummer (Must Love Dogs,) is extremely worried that the contents of his personal safety deposit box will be stolen so he sends a specialist, of some kind, Madeline White, played by Jodie Foster (Flightplan,) to make sure that the contents of said safety deposit box is kept under lock and key.
As you can see this is a strong cast and all of them do a good job with weak characters. Clive Owen is once again very good as the robber with an ulterior motive and shows that he is completely miscast in his last movie, Derailed. I have said it before and will continue to say it, no matter how good Daniel Craig is in the new James Bond movie, Clive Owen is made for the part. He commands such a presence on screen that the audience member is almost drawn to him no matter what scene he is in. Denzel also did a nice job as the detective as well as Christopher Plummer as the bank owner with a secret. I guess its because the characters were very basic in design. These characters were not a stretch for any of the actors and probably have played some version of them before, with one exception. Jodie Foster's character was unique in its ubiquitousness. Once introduce, her character always had a presence in the movie, whether or not she is visible or not. It is possible that it is because her character is so vague that because you don't know who or what her job is, you are constantly thinking about her and therefore she is always around. I will say that I don't know if I have seen Foster play this type of character, a power broker maybe, and it was refreshing to see her in this role. It is also the first time I have seen her since Silence of the Lambs where I can say that she is attractive. I enjoyed her casting the most.
I am going to talk about the plot twist so skip this next paragraph if you don't want to know it.
The plot and story are weak because there are questions that need to be answered and it just never happens. Even though it is too easy to have Plummer's character obtain all of his wealth by stealing from people who the Nazi's killed during World War II, I can accept that as a plot outline, it's very easy and obvious, and very French action movie with a twist, but I can buy it. What I don't get is how does Owen's character know about the secret document and the diamonds in the safety deposit box? In this elaborate bank robbery set-up, Russell (Owen) has planted members of the group in the bank crowd to be used as hostages, and one of them is a rabbi, but how we he know about Case's (Plummer) dealing during the war? Basically what I am getting at is that this is to big of a whole to be left unanswered. Even during the movie White (Foster) asks Russell how he knows about the contents of the safety deposit box and his answer is, "It's not important." Oh, I beg to differ. Russell Gerwitz wrote this movie and he needs to understand that these little details need to be answered in order to make this a believable event. If you don't, the audience, at least myself, feels cheated, or treated as if I am a moron, which is a quick way to get your scripts to land on the desk of B movie directors. Maybe that is what he wants, I don't know, but he needs to work on his logic.
I liked some of Spike Lee's work in this movie. There are some scenes that were shot very nicely. I like the scene with Owen and the child in the bank vault the best. It was humorous as well as educational. However, there was one scene that was shot where Denzel Washington is racing towards the bank after a hostage is shot, and he is on a dolly of some kind, and its very weird. For a moment there I thought I was watching an Evil Dead movie and that Denzel Washington was doing a Bruce Campbell role. It was weird but not horrible. Oh and Spike, don't think I didn't notice you having pictures of Plummer's character with prominent conservative politicians, Margaret Thatcher and the elder Bush's. You show all of this ability and still manage to have absolutely no class. Way to go Spike!
I think I will own this movie one day just because I like Clive Owen. It is a very forgettable movie, which seems to be a reoccurring theme of the movies of 2006, but it is not terrible, just unoriginal.
Brian - the Naked Gun This movie answers the question, "What happens when Spike Lee goes commercial?" "Inside Man" was a mess of cliched characters, cloudy character motivation, suspended belief and generally a lack of story editing. The picture was too long and very uninteresting. It also went out of its way to avoid answering motivation from Clive Owen's character. In the end, it was almost impossible to tell why his character did anything. I was also put off by the ineptness of the police, including Denzel Washington's character. Are these kinds of people THAT easily gulled? Lastly, it was SO obvious where Spike Lee added to the screenplay with social statements, which slowed the picture down. I also think his decision to mix in act three scenes throughout the picture didn't work. I was simply confused, thinking the bank robbers were releasing hostages at will, which didn't make sense cause the cops wouldn't give them any demands if they're going to let go any hostage who speaks out of line. Again, it was just unfounded director's decision. I've liked what Spike Lee has done in the past, but this one shows he shouldn't be thrown into a Hollywood project. He should just do his own projects and die with an incredible resume of "thinking" films instead of something that resembles what a mother bird coughs up to feed her young. Terence Blanchard's music was great, but it felt like it was in the wrong movie. I may have to pick up this score. Overall, I'll say "Inside Man" was a severe disappointment. I wasn't expecting this film to break any molds, but I was expecting more from Spike Lee. Benn - Where's the Humanity?
Dir. Spike Lee
Writ. Russell Gerwitz
Act. Clive Owen, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer