Inside Man

Inside Man takes Clive Owen, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster and Willem Defoe and mixes them all together for a pleasantly confusing bank robbery flick. This Spike Lee Joint begins with Mr. Owen introducing himself as the coldly brilliant culprit and setting the general stage. Denzel plays the lead police negotiator involved in the case, with Defoe as the tactical lead and Foster as a mysterious mademoiselle who uses friends in high places to get involved with the negotiations in order to help other friends in high places. The presence of Foster and the odd behavior of Owen keep Denzel on his toes and keeps him digging to figure out what is really going on with all of the parties involved... in the bank and out. To avoid giving away too much I will keep the details minimal here, but I have to say that the intertwining of witness/hostage interviews was a nice method of telling the story without keeping you inside the bank for an hour and a half. It's also nice to have more attention given to those folks that are victims and volunteers alike. I guess I will end it there... let's proceed, shall we?

Original Release: 2006
Running Time: 129 minutes
Acting - $2
Do me a favor and scroll back up a little bit to see the names of the folks in this movie. It's ok... I can wait.
Back? Good. And do you still need more explanation for why I am giving a full score for this category? If so, then you have probably not seen many movies in the last 15 years and I pity you for that.

Repeat Play - $1
When I want to watch a movie that is fun and chill, but still makes my brain work a little bit, I throw in Inside Man. I'd say I probably watch it once a quarter between my own interests, my roommate's enjoyment of it, and my sharing it with folks that haven't seen it before. I don't really have anything bad to say about the movie and would probably watch it even more if I didn't have such a large selection at my disposal.

Pump up the Jams - $1
There are some decent tunes in Inside Man and the opening track is quite catchy... BUT it's a bit overused so I'm leaving them with only a buck here. Maybe it's because I'm a softy for Bollywood style tunes, but I like the track and others that were used as well.

Shock Value - $1
This is definitely not your standard bank heist. Through the course of the movie they keep you wondering just what the real target in the vault is, and just how Owen's character is going to get out... even with him repeatedly saying that he would walk right out the front door when he was good and ready. A hefty mind game is played between Owen and Washington, and it's a fun one to try to follow.

Billicious - $2
I love this movie. I do. Some of the rankings above were hard and may not make it look like I'm a very big fan at all, but I just love it. It's different, it's intriguing and it flew a bit under the radar I believe.
Total Rating: $7

Whether you are sitting in your home or your office (or your home office for you lucky - or possibly agoraphobic - readers) I want you to either get up and go to your local video rental or sales location (I recommend Best Buy cough-cough-sponsor-me-cough), or visit whatever websites you may know of that will let you watch movies online in a less-than-legal manner and WATCH THIS MOVIE. Seriously folks. A lot of the movies I watch, I do so in order to make sure you don't have to. This is one that you need to make sure you see. Why are you still reading this... GO!!!