Inside Man

[TB]

It was my birthday last night, and my wife and I went to Inside Man.

Fast forward to the end, and I left the theater feeling that soemthing was missing. After thinking and talking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that I was trying to make it more difficult than I should have. It is a very straightforward film. Nicely done with the typical surprise ending. Not as out of the blue as some endings I've seen, but still well done.

I'm not going to go into much more than that for now, as I don't want to give anymore away, and if I keep typing, I'll do just that.

So, has anyone else seen Inside Man? What did you think? Discuss.

 

[Dave A]

It's hard to discuss this film without giving too much away. Good film, not going to go down as a great or anything, but worth going to see.

 

[a6m5]

This has Clive Owen, Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster in it, right? I think Spike Lee directed it? Sounds very interesting. I hope to check this one out in a theater.

 

[Dave A]

Yep that's the one, it's a good film.

 

[Anderton Prime]

Saw it a couple of weeks ago, and thought it was the usual Spike Lee preach-a-thon. The scene with the Sihk guy and the turban was proof of this. Everything Spike Lee makes has to have a hidden agenda involving preaching to everyone about racism. It's tiring and it gets old fast.

 

[El Gigante]

The trailer on TV looks really boring, doesn't give anything away i guess.

 

[tabs]

I saw this a few weeks back and found it boring, for the most part. It's just overly long and those horrible one-liners didn't help much, either. This film also had, quite possibly, the worst opening/closing song, ever. I honestly thought I walked into the wrong movie.

Saw it a couple of weeks ago, and thought it was the usual Spike Lee preach-a-thon. The scene with the Sihk guy and the turban was proof of this. Everything Spike Lee makes has to have a hidden agenda involving preaching to everyone about racism. It's tiring and it gets old fast.

That scene was ridiculous. There are people being held hostage (some are his friends/co-workers) and the dude’s actually throwing a hissy fit, because he doesn't have his turban? SHUT UP, YOU TOOL!

 

[Max_DC]

Well the film was absolutly ok for a nice evening in the cinema. I didn't regret watching it at all, but I wouldn't buy the dvd either.

I laughed about the turban scene, so it worked fine for me. Intention behind it or not, I don't care.

So for those who havn't watched it : You can, but you don't have to. Maybe it's even a better movie to rent.

 

[livemusic]

Yeah, the turban part was weak. But I liked the movie in general. I watched it for free though, so no regrets. 👍

 

[TB]

I paid for it and liked it.

 

[a6m5]

Fast forward to the end, and I left the theater feeling that something was missing. After thinking and talking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that I was trying to make it more difficult than I should have. It is a very straightforward film. Nicely done with the typical surprise ending. Not as out of the blue as some endings I've seen, but still well done.

I just finished watching it, so I haven't had the chance to go over the plot yet, but I also thought it was pretty straightfoward. The film kind of lets you know that you need to get your thinking cap ready for this one, so you'll be able to keep up with what's going on in it. Unlike Syriana, I think, I had to rewind it couple of times to catch everything. Only one mystery for me though, who was the "Inside Man"? Was it the rabbi? I am bit lost on that one.

As for my overall take on the "Inside Man", I'd give it a A-. I would nominate this film as one of the best of the year, despite its' usual drawbacks that can be found in every other Spike Lee films, one you guys have already mentioned.

Plot: As I said earlier, it doesn't (overly )insult your intelligence, but doesn't make it hard to follow either. Turns in the movie could've been sharper, more exciting, but I thought it was consistently entertaining. It's not a believable story, and exchange between the characters are sometimes way over the top, but as long as it's fun to watch, I think that's what matters.

Cast/Characters: There are some dull ones, but there were so many cool and entertaining cats in this film. Clive Owen(I know there are doubters) was as cool as Elvis as usual. Willem Dafoe as the Captain was bit subtle, but really well played and was never boring. Denzel and Jodie Foster were Denzel and Jodie Foster in both good way and bad. While they were both good(Denzel was infact great), personally, I kept seeing Denzel and Jodie, not their characters. I'm happy anytime I see Christopher Plummer these days. He was good, but that's a given. It's nice to see that he isn't willing to slow down, just because it's late in his career. Keep up the good work! My MVP in the film was the actor who played the first Sergeant at the scene, and got the ".357" in his face. I guess his name is Victor Colicchio. I thought he stole the show. 👍👍 Only actor who really let me down was Chiwetel Ejiofor(Dirty Pretty Things, Serenity). He had the boring role as the Denzel's patner, and he wasn't able to do anything with it either.

Etc.: Music was really unique and refreshing. I usually don't like Spikes Cinematography. I hate the look, blurriness, lighting. But I did like one techinque that he ripped off of Guy Ritchie from the "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". In "Lock, Stock", they do this trick shot, when Eddie(main character) loses the fixed poker game. It looks like he is floating thru, while the background looks like it's fast forwarding. Similar technique is applied to the Denzel's scene, when something bad happend with the hostage situation at the bank. Looked really cool, I thought.

If you haven't seen this, you should rent it. It is out on DVD now. If flicks like "Trasporter 2" is cup of your tea though, pass.

 

[Famine]

Having seen Quick Change and an episode of Jonathan Creek called "Jack in the Box"*, I did see an awful lot of it coming - though it was a good film overall. In actual fact, the plan for the robbery was a lot better than the film that surrounded it - but I'm afraid the ending doesn't wash (unless Denzel's character really did take the Madrugada money, in which case it's more plausible).



*An old man is found having apparently committed suicide inside his own sealed nuclear bunker. But with his crippling arthritis, he couldn't have pulled the trigger on the gun he's supposed to have used, so must have been murdered. But the bunker could only be sealed from the inside - so if it was murder, how did the murderer get out?

 

[TheCracker]

Watched this over the weekend (Inside Man not Jonathan Creek) and enjoyed it. Overall if left me with the overall impression that not everything had been explored enough. The Jodie Foster character was underused and i didn't feel that she was the sort of person who had the sway to actually get those things done. It was generally pretty slick but story wise i'd pretty much seen it all already. I would recommend it however.

 

[Famine]

It was enjoyable enough - and some aspects of the robbery were genius (like dressing the hostages all the same and swapping them between holding rooms).

After Lucky Number Slevin I was quite glad of a film that didn't overexplain itself...

 

[Anderton Prime]

You can smell Spike Lee way too much in his films, and it gets tiring after the 30th minute or so. To begin with, Denzel's character's costume is RIDICULOUS.

 

[a6m5]

You can smell Spike Lee way too much in his films, and it gets tiring after the 30th minute or so. To begin with, Denzel's character's costume is RIDICULOUS.

Denzel's attire were bit of distraction(OK, it was lame). I was never that impressed with Spike Lee's works, but I really like this, also the 25th Hour.

 

[ken2903]

i wasn't that impressed. 25th hour was much much better IMO

 

[Anderton Prime]

A lot of people have recommended The 25th Hour; perhaps I'll check it out this weekend...

 

[ken2903]

A lot of people have recommended The 25th Hour; perhaps I'll check it out this weekend...

i love that movie, it does have a bit of the spike lee trademark anti-racism (or whatever it is) but ed norton, phillip seymore hoffman and barry pepper are all really good in it. and rosario dawson and brian cox.
pretty good lineup now that i think of it