DVD Movie Review: The Inside Man

Synopsis:
His time as a director may have seen Spike Lee gently creep away from the controversial material that made his name, but he hasn't lost his eye for creating an entertaining spectacle; Inside Man is a deliriously constructed crime caper designed to keep audiences guessing right up until the final moments.

The plot, written by Russell Gewirtz, works from a devilishly simple premise and spins off on a number of interesting and creative tangents. Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) and his partner Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are sent to deal with a hostage situation at a bank in lower Manhattan. Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) is a masked man holding a number of people hostage in the bank while its chairman, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), worries about a secret document he has hidden in a safety deposit box in the vaults. Madeline White (Jodie Foster) is a sassy power broker who Case hires to enter the melee in order to get his mysterious object out of the box and out of the bank.

As Gewirtz gradually confounds viewers' expectations by threading neat twists and turns into the plot, Lee briefly--perhaps too briefly for hardened Spike fans--returns to the racial themes he overtly tackled in his earlier work. The director uses a number of visual tricks to keep the action humming, such as spectacular overhead shots and grainy, darkly hued posthumous interview clips with the hostages, but Inside Man is essentially a fun popcorn movie executed with an intelligence usually lacking in the genre. While many of the themes--cops are racist, people in power are corrupt, the innocent are persecuted--may be hackneyed, it's testament to Lee's stature as a filmmaker that he manages to pull an engrossing and enjoyable romp from such ostensibly standard subject matter.

Cast: Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, Clive Owen
Director: Spike Lee

The Inside Man Pictures and Wallpapers:
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Prices and where to buy it:
You can buy the DVD The Inside Man at Amazon.com

Critic Quotes and Reviews:

• Rolling Stone 3 stars out of 4 -- "Denzel Washington energizes the movie....[He] has the kind of star quality other actors would die for: unfakeable cool." 04/06/2006 p.74
• New York Times"[Lee's] most polished and satisfying work in years....[Foster delivers] her wittiest, most relaxed performance in ages..." 03/24/2006 p.E10
• Uncut 4 stars out of 5 -- "While he slaloms around the plot's slippery hairpins, Lee relishes the interplay of character that pulses through Russell Gewirtz's screenplay, and a pedigree cast helps him to tweezer out the tensions and innuendos." 05/01/2006 p.146
• Sight and Sound"Lee orchestrates the high-stakes drama with a slick adrenalised urgency that wouldn't be out of place in a multiplex actioner." 05/01/2006 p.57
• USA Today"Exceptionally well written with clever twists and witty dialogue by first-time screenwriter Russell Gewirtz, INSIDE MAN is adroitly executed by director Spike Lee." 03/24/2006 p.3E
• Total Film 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he first half's a gripper, twitchy and tense with plenty of nods toward modern urban anxieties..." 08/01/2006 p.102
• Ultimate DVD 3 stars out of 5 -- "Lee has managed to assemble a fantastic cast, with everyone from relative newcomer Ejiofor, to old-hand Plummer and especially Washington, as the slyly intelligent Frazer, making an impression." 08/01/2006 p.108
• Entertainment Weekly"It's smart, twisty, and talky." -- Grade: B 08/11/2006 p.56
• Uncut 4 stars out of 5 -- "With a knowing nod to Lumet's DOG DAY AFTERNOON, Spike Lee shows he can deliver a straightforward heist thriller." 09/01/2006 p.128
• Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10 The screenplay by Russell Gewirtz needs a few more runs through rewrite. Because the film was directed by Spike Lee, it is not without interest; Lee finds so many interesting details that don't involve the plot that we're reluctant when he gets back to business...The performances, for that matter, are first rate; Denzel Washington is convincing even when he has little to be convincing about, and Jodie Foster is smart and tough as she decisively does more or less nothing. Well, to be fair, a little more more than less. - Roger Ebert
• Variety.com 8 of 10 A thriller that aims to be different, "Inside Man" stirs some very tasty flavors into its familiar bank robbery/hostage crisis plot, which helps conceal the modest portion of the central ingredient, suspense. A flashy cast, clever script and vibrant showcasing of New York City as the ultimate melting pot are strong plusses for Spike Lee's most mainstream studio venture, which Denzel Washington's name should propel to solid returns for Universal...With Matthew Libatique behind the camera for his second consecutive picture with Lee, rough-and-ready visuals are of a piece with those of the helmer's previous pics. - Todd McCarthy

DVD Information:
Format: DVD, Widescreen
Genre: Drama / Suspense / Thriller / Crime
Runtime: 129 minutes
Screen Aspect:Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
Sound Quality: English Dolby Digital (5.1); Dolby Surround Sound, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Media Quantity: 1 DVD Disc

Other Information and Links:
Studio: Universal Studios.
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
DVD Release Date: 8/8/2006

DVD Features:

• Deleted Scenes The Making of Inside Man Featurette
• Number 4 Featurette
• Feature Commentary with Director Spike Lee
• Widescreen Presentation