The Bottom Line
Pros
- Slightly offbeat heist movie with unexpected plot twists
- Outstanding cast that includes Denzel Washington and five other well-known actors
- Spike Lee film sprinkled with amusing vignettes of contemporary life in New York City
Cons
- Movie is a reasonably entertaining crime drama, but doesn't have much emotional resonance
- Doesn't maintain intensity well enough to be a top-notch thriller
- Film dragged in second half, and I would have preferred it to be 15 or 20 minutes shorter
Description
- DVD containing movie Inside Man (2006) starring Denzel Washington and directed by Spike Lee
- Cast includes Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe and Chiwetel Ejiofor
- DVD provides feature-length audio commentary by director Spike Lee
- DVD contains deleted scenes running a total of about 25 minutes
- DVD has 10-minute making-of featurette
- DVD provides 10-minute conversation between Spike Lee and Denzel Washington
- MPAA rating: R for language and some violent images
- Feature film run time: 2 hours 9 minutes
- DVD release date: August 8, 2006
Guide Review - Inside Man DVD Review
Denzel Washington is one of my favorite movie stars, and his performance in the crime drama Inside Man didn't disappoint me. Here he is joined by a first-rate cast that includes Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe and Chiwetel Ejiofor. To some extent, the strong performances make up for the film's weaknesses.
Inside Man is an intricate yarn about what happens when four criminals, led by Dalton Russell (Owen), go into a Manhattan bank and take 50 people hostage. Keith Frazier (Washington) is the NYPD detective charged with finding a way out of the crisis. Plummer portrays the bank's board chairman who hires a mysterious, well-connected "fixer" (Foster) to help him protect a secret.
Spike Lee directed Inside Man, and the movie is sprinkled with his trademark humor, racial observations and location shooting in New York City. The result is a slightly offbeat heist film that I don't think has enough intensity to be a top-notch thriller, but is nonetheless reasonably entertaining. However, Inside Man lacks the depth of Lee's best films.
On the DVD, Lee does a commentary track for the movie, and I actually enjoyed that more than the film itself. There's also an excellent 10-minute conversation between Lee and Denzel Washington. Also, the 25 minutes of deleted scenes aren't bad, and there's a serviceable 10-minute making-of featurette.
