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Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for another Spike Lee joint! With your host, Keyseeeeeeer Corleone! And for today's episode, we're going to dive into a Dog Day Afternoon-style movie that was five years in the making, written by a lawyer who passed it around until Imagine Entertainment looked around for a director after Ron Howard cancelled for Cinderella Man, making its way to Hollywood's favorite black director! Today's movie iiiiiiiiis, Inside Man!
A group of masked robbers invade a Manhattan bank, organizing things with precision and making constant demands to the authorities outside. Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) is called on to negotiate the terms with the mastermind (Clive Owen). Meanwhile, the bank's founder (Christopher Plummer) plans for a fixer to hide something in that vault that could potentially ruin him, so he hires a fixer (Jodie Foster) to keep things quiet. Unfortunately, the mastermind knows all about what's in that case the founder wants hidden.
While I considered the plotting of the actual hostage situation to be at full power, the one thing I was really disappointed in considering the first half was the lack of characterization. It felt minimal and came only in sparse moments, so it was difficult to connect to Washington's character Frazier, especially when comparing it to his performance as Malcolm X in Lee's biopic. I felt like Washington wasn't really being challenged here, so his performance was an easy one, like Robin Williams in Jack. In a way, I wasn't super impressed with Owen, either. He did a great job, but his performance was built on one emotion I had already seen him master in Sin City, made the year before this. So the keep it original, Lee's direction, the hostage plotting, Jodie Foster's mystique as a fixer and the twists involving Christopher Plummer's character keep things rolling.
Thankfully, things change when Washington and Owen finally collide halfway through. Passing the phone conversations, we see the two get up close and personal with a great exchange of dialogue and tension. Some of these decisions between the writer and our director are masterful. So the second half more or less became what I want from a perfect movie, with one exception: Chiwetel Ejiofor and Willem Dafoe are severely underused. As a fan of the Doctor Strange movies, I was really hoping for more of Ejiofor, because I'm not fully versed in him and want to be. And I especially wanted some amazing things from Dafoe, who's one of my all-time favorites. The fact that they didn't give him anything personal or great to work with. They might as well have not hired him.
And now lemme get down to the meat of the plot and the direction. Spike Lee's direction is at some of his absolute best here. This movie shows his skill in slow, frantic, tense and dramatic direction all over. This is perfect for how twisty and unpredictable the movie gets overtime. It doesn't flood with you with them constantly, but rather does a great job pacing them with proper progression, never letting you accurately guess what's gonna happen next. This is exactly what I want in a crime thriller, and I expect no less when I have high expectations.
If Inside Man handled its protagonists more well during the first half, this would be a 100. Instead, I'll address the second half's one flaw in contrast with its many strengths. The second half follows almost every essential I ask for a perfect movie. The plot twists rival those of the original Oldboy (gonna watch the Spike Lee one some time later), and the cast and crew are putting everything they have into it. This is definitely a replay for me, and a fourth five-star for Spike, but at the bare minimum score for a five-star this time.
= 95
Spike Lee's Directorial Score (9 Good vs. 1 Bad)
Do the Right Thing: 100
Malcolm X: 100
The 25th Hour: 96
Inside Man: 95
Blackkklansman: 90
Score: 96.2 / 5
No movies will no affect Spike Lee's score unless one is higher than 90. Spike Lee's position on my Best Directors List raises from #44 to #25 between Peter Jackson and Wes Craven.
Inside Man
(2006) - A Spike Lee Joint
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Heist / Cop / Thriller
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(2006) - A Spike Lee Joint
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Heist / Cop / Thriller
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"So what the hell can you do for me, since I clearly know more then you do, and I've planned this to perfection?"
Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for another Spike Lee joint! With your host, Keyseeeeeeer Corleone! And for today's episode, we're going to dive into a Dog Day Afternoon-style movie that was five years in the making, written by a lawyer who passed it around until Imagine Entertainment looked around for a director after Ron Howard cancelled for Cinderella Man, making its way to Hollywood's favorite black director! Today's movie iiiiiiiiis, Inside Man!
A group of masked robbers invade a Manhattan bank, organizing things with precision and making constant demands to the authorities outside. Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) is called on to negotiate the terms with the mastermind (Clive Owen). Meanwhile, the bank's founder (Christopher Plummer) plans for a fixer to hide something in that vault that could potentially ruin him, so he hires a fixer (Jodie Foster) to keep things quiet. Unfortunately, the mastermind knows all about what's in that case the founder wants hidden.
While I considered the plotting of the actual hostage situation to be at full power, the one thing I was really disappointed in considering the first half was the lack of characterization. It felt minimal and came only in sparse moments, so it was difficult to connect to Washington's character Frazier, especially when comparing it to his performance as Malcolm X in Lee's biopic. I felt like Washington wasn't really being challenged here, so his performance was an easy one, like Robin Williams in Jack. In a way, I wasn't super impressed with Owen, either. He did a great job, but his performance was built on one emotion I had already seen him master in Sin City, made the year before this. So the keep it original, Lee's direction, the hostage plotting, Jodie Foster's mystique as a fixer and the twists involving Christopher Plummer's character keep things rolling.
Thankfully, things change when Washington and Owen finally collide halfway through. Passing the phone conversations, we see the two get up close and personal with a great exchange of dialogue and tension. Some of these decisions between the writer and our director are masterful. So the second half more or less became what I want from a perfect movie, with one exception: Chiwetel Ejiofor and Willem Dafoe are severely underused. As a fan of the Doctor Strange movies, I was really hoping for more of Ejiofor, because I'm not fully versed in him and want to be. And I especially wanted some amazing things from Dafoe, who's one of my all-time favorites. The fact that they didn't give him anything personal or great to work with. They might as well have not hired him.
And now lemme get down to the meat of the plot and the direction. Spike Lee's direction is at some of his absolute best here. This movie shows his skill in slow, frantic, tense and dramatic direction all over. This is perfect for how twisty and unpredictable the movie gets overtime. It doesn't flood with you with them constantly, but rather does a great job pacing them with proper progression, never letting you accurately guess what's gonna happen next. This is exactly what I want in a crime thriller, and I expect no less when I have high expectations.
If Inside Man handled its protagonists more well during the first half, this would be a 100. Instead, I'll address the second half's one flaw in contrast with its many strengths. The second half follows almost every essential I ask for a perfect movie. The plot twists rival those of the original Oldboy (gonna watch the Spike Lee one some time later), and the cast and crew are putting everything they have into it. This is definitely a replay for me, and a fourth five-star for Spike, but at the bare minimum score for a five-star this time.
= 95
Spike Lee's Directorial Score (9 Good vs. 1 Bad)
Do the Right Thing: 100
Malcolm X: 100
The 25th Hour: 96
Inside Man: 95
Blackkklansman: 90
Score: 96.2 / 5
No movies will no affect Spike Lee's score unless one is higher than 90. Spike Lee's position on my Best Directors List raises from #44 to #25 between Peter Jackson and Wes Craven.