Inside Man

[Jcruz]

Could'nt find a tread for this. I swear I searhed.

Saw it this weekend. And it was good. Not great. I didn't have high expectaions with this movie. It was an entertaining movie, which had me rooting for the bad guys. Came in with low expectation, but I was pleasently surpirised. Denzel plays.... well a typical Denzel role. Jodie Foster is hot in this movie, and had some amazing clothes on. I was expecting her to play a typical Jodie role, so I was pleasently surpised that she plays quite the hottie in this movie. Needless to say Clive was yummy.

So all in all, not a bad movie.

[Deleted]

Saw this. It's pretty terrific.

Didn't expect much either, but came away very surprised. The movie holds your attention from start to finish. I wanted to use the toilet at one point, but stayed in my seat, afraid that I might miss something ;D

The acting is first rate, all through the cast. Denzel does play a fairly routine movie Cop role, but he's such a good actor that he doesn't succumb to it's inherent cliches. It's quite a weird performance from Denzel, but in a good way. Instead of playing it completely straight, commanding and serious as one would expect from Denz, he's yukking it up half the time, being ridiculously casual, cracking silly jokes and being somewhat goofy with Chewitel Ejiofor. His character felt like a slightly more competent version of Inspector Clouseau (loved Denzel's comical look in the mirror at the end of the movie!). Denzel, though he has many serious moments, is almost the comic relief in this film, as well as being the least intelligent and least informed of the main characters. This perfomance makes me want to see Denzel in a real good comedy, 'cause I think he'd be great at it.

Owen was great. His character had no development whatsoever and his motivations were only revealed at the end, but he does do the whole ice cold criminal mastermind thing with aplomb.

I thought Foster was underused and her character underwritten, but her performance was excellent. Had her character had some more pivotal scenes, and had we learned more about her, it might have been Foster's best performance in years. She's a great hardnosed character. She also looked surprisingly hot in her figure hugging buisness suits.

Everyone else was did a great job. Chewitel Eijiofor made a good sidekick to Denzel, and they riffed off each other like a seasoned comedy act.

Lee does a great job dirercting. The tension is maintained for most of the film, though the last 10 minutes might be slightly anti-climatic. He throws in a few typical social commentary diatribes (the Sikh losing his turban, the messed up videogame), but these are merely asides, that don't get in the way of the entertainment value. I also suspect the way the NYPD treated the situation and the hostages is an allegorical condemnation of US Foreign policy (the hostages getting mowed down and beaten in their blue jumpsuits, is an image not a million miles removed from the Orange suited Arab prisoners of Guantanamo Bay being shackled by US soldiers).

Still, you can reasonably watch this movie without ever giving a second thought to any political allegory. So I guess the film works on a couple of different levels.

[lpatrice]

I plan on seeing it tomorrow, and I might do something I haven't done since season two of Buffy. Go see it unspoiled!

[sjankis630]

I definitely enjoyed this one in a full theater this afternoon. I agree that it has some great acting all around. And yes Jodie does look pretty hot, but unfortunately I would say her character is the least developed in the whole picture. Kind of like they wanted her in it , but couldn't come up with a compelling enough storyline for her.
Definitely does not come across as a Spike Lee Joint. I don't know if that will turn people off of the movie or attract folks to see it. It was pretty funny too.

[splendagirl]

I saw the movie last night. I enjoyed it (as I enjoy Columbo-ish and negotiator type of movies). I wish however, that Spike Lee left out more of bank robbery details. Let the audience guess and wonder.

I also wanted him to know more Case. It would have been great if the movie traveled back in time to the point were Case was a young man and made the fateful choice to choose money over his friends. The directing style/plot of M. Night Shyamalan would have helped.

[sjankis630]

The gum part reminded me a little bit of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three with Walter Matthau. I thought it would play a bigger part in the movie.

[lpatrice]

I saw it unspoiled and I really liked it, the acting was great all around. Jodie Foster looked amazing, she needs more roles like this and less victim roles.

[Deleted]

I thought the movie was decent but I felt that it left me with one glaring unanswered question. Did they ever explain how the robbers knew about the contents of the safe deposit box in the first place? I just can't get over not knowing about the genesis of the robbery. It is possible that the movie made a small mention of the answer and I missed it or dismissed it, thinking that it wasn't important.

I, too, was surprised by how funny the film was. The part with the guy and his Albanian ex-wife was hilarious as was the dude with the cell phone that played "Gold Digger" when it rang.

[peachesandcream]

ThursdayNext, I saw the movie last night, and as far as I remember, they never mentioned how the Steves knew about the contents of the box. But, I think it probably hinged on the ring. Maybe they somehow traced the path of the ring during the war, and followed the stench of man's inhumanity to man.

I agree that some of the police action may have been meant to mirror what's happening in Iraq, because I found it totally unbelievable that they shot the first few hostages with rubber bullets as they were coming out of the bank. I just don't see that happening in real life unless someone fucks up majorly, and those hostages would have one hell of a lawsuit. <<<<<

I really liked the movie. Jodie was great. Clive was awesome, but it was kind of a bummer that his face was covered for most of the film. Denzel was good too. I don't enjoy his performances as much now that I know too much about his personal life.

I really like Chewitel Eijiofor and I'm glad he keeps popping up in unexpected places like this movie and Serenity.

[mya]

I didn't want to see it but I'm so happy I went. Before watching this movie I didn't like Denzil Washington because I always thought his looks and acting were over-rated but I enjoyed his acting in this film. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I loved Clive in this movie, his voice turned me on, lol. Jodie looked so sexy, I loved the outfits she had on. I would definately love to see this movie again.