hhahhahahahah, baba's "sister" doesn/'t get it, that's great.


PS, they robbed about ten bags of diamonds, too. (i stopped reading a few posts ago, im not sure if eagle ever mentioned that.)

An entertaining film that could have done with trimming by 20 mins or so, and lost it a little towards the end. One of the most bizarre soundtracks i've ever heard and at times it was a distraction. Other than that a solid 2 hours of fun, Jodie stole the show for me but she was criminally inderused. B-

8/10 (B+)
Much better than I was expecting.

BJs Grade:

A-

fantastic film, much better than I expected.

I finally saw it today.

Foster and Washington, on fire.

A

Loved it. It was so much fun...

Only flaw for me: Ten minutes too long. Finish it with the "Follow the ring" note, and Owen´s voiceover while leaving in the car, and I would have been in movie heaven.

Also, I am not bothered by a single one of those so-called plotholes... except for one little thing that nobody has mentioned yet: Why would all the robbers be in the same car to pick up their leader? Don´t they realize that the fact of being all together gives away that there were involved? Couldn´t just one single person do it, instead of showing up in a group at the door of the place where they robbed, where any of the employees that were hold hostage could see them?

Still, I am not losing sleep over it. The movie was brilliant, and I love bitchy Jodie Foster and criminal but sweet Clive Owen. I wanna buy the DVD already.

A-


Inside Man is easily one of the best 2006 movies thus far. I have just had so much fun watching it. The movie has it all. It is entertaining, tense, smart and thoughtful all at the same time. There are plotholes in there, yeah, but none of them is really major and none of them bothered me in the slightest. Denzel Washington delivers a good performance, however one that he has delivered for years now. Jodie Foster is decent, but sadly wasted in the film. Her screentime is surprisingly short. Clive Owen, however, proves that he is one of the best "new" stars in Hollywood. He has great charisma and the interaction between him and Denzel Washington is just perfect. Christopher Plummer has a short, but also delightful role.

The film has got to be one of the smartest heist flicks I have ever seen. The twists make sense and are fairly unpredictable. The way it all turns out and how Dalton Russell ends up "robbing" the bank is simply ingenious. Haven't seen anything smart like this fr a long time. I agree that the very ending is a little overdrawn in length, but it didn't hurt my overall perception of the film by much. The whole idea of this heist, the execution and the way the movie is filmed (with several flash-forwards) is just great. It is a Spike Lee film, still and even here he does manage to get in some of his commentaries on racism etc., but it never gets too much. Moreover, the movie is also fairly amusing and at some spots downright funny.

Hollywood should bring out more throughly smart thrillers like this. I enjoyed every second of it at the theatre and it deserves all the success it gets.

7.5/10
Actually a smart movie..but then it can also not completely hide that actually not that much is happening in the 120 mins.
But I did like it. Overall very good acting and the story was nicely told.

This film really does reek of cool from the rugged menace of Owen the effortless charisma of Washington to Jodie Foster continued ability to protray strong women with a edge, the whole assemblge just rides along on the sheer aura of its stars. However scratch the surface and you'll see your dealing with a Petomkin village of a movie all flash but nothing inside.

Spike Lee has somehow managed to construt a 2 hour movie out of a story so threadbare that Im amazed anyone could streach this beyond an hour 15.

what it boiled down to in essence was 2 hours of hostages being moved around rooms in an attempt to confuse the viewer while Washington and Owen spend there time just brooding in front of the camera while occasionally uttering something cool. Fosters character feels incredable redundant to the story as if the studio demanded Spike put a central female character while some of the ruses the robbers use to confuse the police are downright insulting to the intelligence (you know the scene when you see it)

If your willing to turn off certain logical parts of your brain while watching this then you will find a good time just don't expect to remember anthing much once its over.

C+

Without a shadow of a doubt the best film I've seen all year, and the first flawless film I've seen since 2004. It's absolutely tremendous in every regard. A

Yeah, flawless is the word. I've watched it three times this week and I don't get tired of it. It's fantastic.

After the theater I had this at a B but the more I think about, the less I like it. C-

Eternal Sunshine?

No Poll for this, btw?

And Before Sunset and Million Dollar Baby.

Still my favorite film of the year.

I saw it the other night.

I think it's solid. The character focus gets lost continuously throughout and I think more could have been done with the interviews, but yeah...

I guess there's not much to say about it.

Pretty good movie. Foster's character annoyed me a little and confused me (Did they ever explain what she was?) but the other two main characters were great. The acting is wonderful, as is the direction.

Overall, very entertaining.

B+

C-

Passable light entertainment, but nothing we haven't seen before and much better. The script sucked but Clive Owen was good, he's the only thing that lifted this above TV movie level. Denzel as always has great screen presence but he wasn't given anything to work with, just some strutting cocky lines, no real meat to his role. Jodie Foster's character and the way she played her was so irritating I came out of it disliking her more than the old guy we were supposed to hate. And the hostages were pretty much the most fugly set of supporting characters I've seen in a movie in years.

I thought the script was excellent.

Solid heist thriller that puts a new spin on the familiar tale and does it very well. The first two thirds or so of the movie are fantastic, with the entire bank robbery very gripping and suspenseful. Unfortunately, the plot gets tangled up in motivations and the film spirals downward a bit near the end. Perhaps a bit overlong, but the real problem is overwriting - an entire subplot could have been scrapped with only a positive effect on the film. Still, it's a great flick, chocked full of humour, intelligence, and interesting characters.

The thing that separated this a bit from other heist thrillers was the Jodie Foster character, who was unfortunately underdeveloped and a bit of a waste. Her entire subplot with the Christopher Plummer character really seems out of place and poorly managed, and could have been much better had it been more properly woven into the story. The ending, which focuses primarily on this subplot, loses a lot of the momentum built up during the first two thirds, and just feels extraneous and drags the film on longer than it needed to be. That's my only large complaint; the rest of the film, by and large, is fantastic.

The performances really stand out, and seeing Clive Owen and Denzel Washington going mano a mano is a real treat. Both of them are excellent, and it's hard to pick a favourite of the two. Foster is good, but her character is not really interesting. Plummer is decent but unneeded, and both Dafoe and Washington's partner are quite good. The direction is solid, with several scenes really standing out, although the entire robbery sequence is shot extraordinarily well. The cutting back and forth between the standoff and the later interviews with the hostages is interesting, and makes for a more compelling story. The final twist is quite original and intriguing, though logic is stretched a bit to make it work. Still, overall, a solid film.

Structurally speaking I think the purpose of the Foster character was to link Plummer more directly to the events going on in the bank and to provide more chances for exposition. But the problem is once Plummer enters the scene he has this giant blinking villain sign over his head and that makes Dalton Russell almost immediately seem not scary, because we realize he isn't the real bad guy.

I might be slightly biased against it because the movie seems to require us to find the rhythms and feel of NYC charming and I just don't.

Nice obvious product placement for Dell by the way, near the end when they showed the boxes hiding his spot.

A-

Inside Man kicks ass. It's greatest traits are not in how memorable or original the movie is, but rather just giving the audience a tense and smart thriller, which it pulls off very very well. I have to credit Spike Lee for staging and directing the film the way he does, it moves at a fantastic pace, it always has you on the edge of your seat wondering what's going to happen next, it's very entertaining. The best scenes of the movie are the heist interactions, the phone calls between Owen and Washington, the way Owen orchastrates the robbery, the reveal and ending of the plan. The acting by Owen is very strong, but I also thought Denzel was top notch in this, normally I'm not *that* much of a fan of him, but he really impressed me here. The timing of the way he said his words, I wouldn't say humor, but rather the wit of the delivery, was very good. He's been a cop many times before, but in here he made the role feel fresh.

Where the movie slows down, and what stops it from being perfect, is the entire subplot of Foster with Plummer and his nasty background. I just felt that the film was perfect in the heist sequences, but when it came to drama, showcasing this storyline, it slowed down and felt average. Foster's character is never really fleshed out enough, and you never really feel as much interest towards this old man as you do to Owen, you just want the film to get back to the heist. The ending scenes feel a bit weak, as you never see what happens to Plummer, and the movie just peters out, it doesn't know how to end.

Pretty awesome movie. Very entertaining with some great performances!.... im seriously starting to hate Denzel....

A-

The giant Apple monitor was pretty obvious too.

But I loooved this movie. Top acting, wonderful score (!), and great plot.

Grade: A-