Inside Man |  | Director: Spike Lee
Actors: Willem Dafoe, Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.99
Buy Used: $7.99
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Used (5) from $7.99
Seller: DVD'S Finest
Rating:  240 reviews
Sales Rank: 110456
Format: Full Screen, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 025192028687
EAN: 0025192028687
ASIN: B001VPJZGI
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
Release Date: February 27, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
Spike Lee scored his biggest hit to date with Inside Man, an unconventional thriller with fascinating details in the margins of its convoluted plot. The screenplay (by first-timer Russell Gerwitz) could've used a few more rewrites; it moves at a brisk pace but in hindsight a lot of it doesn't make sense. That makes Inside Man more fun to watch than to think about afterwards (when you discover plot holes big enough to drive a truck through), but it's curiously involving, especially as NYPD Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) struggles to outsmart a high-stakes bank robber (Clive Owen) who, along with a well-trained crew of accomplices, has seized control of a Wall Street bank, turning what initially looks like a hostage crisis into a personal crusade to expose some mysterious evil secrets. As you might expect from the director of Do the Right Thing, Lee seizes several satisfying opportunities to examine post-9/11 issues of racial prejudice and domestic terrorism, and the mysterious "problem solver" Madeline White (Jodie Foster), as eerily sinister as she is vaguely defined, is worthy of her own movie. With the benefit of his most stellar cast to date (including Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe and Chiwetel Ejiofor), Lee seems more interested in character details than well-crafted suspense, but that doesn't stop Inside Man from being engrossing, subtly amusing, and quirky enough to qualify as a welcomed break from the formulaic thrillers that are Hollywood's bread and butter.--Jeff Shannon
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 240
 great movie January 22, 2010
Alfredo Galang
i really like this movie and it is pretty good on blu ray at a very price
Inside Man -- Ingenious! January 8, 2010
John C. Graves (Winnetka, CA USA)
Inside Man is not a clear cut story of good guys and bad guys, although it starts out that way. Inside Man dares, in the post 9-11 era, to depict a group of terrorists in New York City with a morally ambiguous, possibly even compelling motive, and whose motto might well be "We Will Never Forget".
Criminal mastermind Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) remarks that "Respect is the ultimate currency, " and "If you love each other, money really shouldn't matter." Why? The giant "We Will Never Forget" banner sprawls across the screen several times, and forms the subtext of this entire story. But if you don't understand the duality of that banner, you're not grasping what this movie is all about.
There's a lot more here than first meets the eye. Inside Man takes the heist film to another level, leaving simple-minded "terrorist" thrillers like "Die Hard" in the dust, with the most ingenious heist plot going, period -- a killer cast, a wonderful score, fabulous camera work (some mind-bending, big budget crane shots -- they make those moves look so easy but they're not!), crackling Mamet-grade dialogue, and a distinctive flash-forward editing style that actually helps viewer understanding and is a hallmark of the film's unique, hip style, courtesy of director Spike Lee.
The "victim", bank chairman Arthur Case, impeccably played by the avuncular and agreeable Christopher Plummer, is a man with Nazi genocide in his past. The chief bank robber, performed "to perfection" by Clive Owen, is looking to enrich himself but also to reveal crimes against humanity. In a puzzling and peculiar fashion he is to us both a hero and a thief. Jodie Foster as Madeleine White is the perpetually smiling fixer working for the bank chairman, trying to insure a good political outcome for her client. Denzel Washington as Detective Frazier heads the cast as the straight man cop trying to figure out what the heck is going on here. And no one is quite what they seem.
With a philanthrophic bank executive as it's central villain, I-M is perhaps more timely and topical now than when it was first released in 2005. I particularly enjoyed how Madeleine White gets under the mayor's (and Arthur Case's) skin -- and the extremely smart bit where those characters, once out of the public eye, suddenly change their conversation in the blink of an eye from philanthropy to the lobbyist's language of coercion.
Like a mandela, the layers of good and evil, truth and lies, weave in and out on multiple levels. Much like life, nothing is as simple or clear cut as it seems.
There were many ways the events in this film could have unfolded to us. The timeline of the film is mostly linear, except for the "flash-forward", somewhat solarized hostage interviews which, positioned as they are, serve an intercutting function and break up the action nicely. The interrogations of the ex-hostages are terribly important because, after all, that's how the cops think they're going to break the case -- by finding the inside man. But if the hostage interviews had been piled up at the end of the movie, they would have been too much all at once and brought the movie to a stop.
Aside from the highly motivated characters, this film has a tremendous sense of humor and irony, and most of it comes out in the fact that the hostages are humiliated and bullied by the robbers AND the police. It is, in fact, the police who shoot rubber bullets at the hostages -- the robbers never fire a shot from their toy guns.
As a footnote, the main and end title designs were very nicely done, and in a rarity, the end credits depict all the orchestral players by instrument. Nice.
Inside Man -- remarkably ingenious, refreshing, tight structure, consistently engaging, never drops a beat, brilliant!
A smartly written thriller gets a strong technical release January 7, 2010
Wim Vermont
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I hadn't seen this movie in theaters, but was pleasantly surprised by the story. This is not a typical heist / bankrobber movie but adds a few interesting elements to the mix. Strong performances of Jodie Foster, Clive Owen and Denzel Washington elevate the plot even further. If you like thrillers with a smart story, you won't be disappointed
Technically speaking, this is a strong release: video is clean without spots or other debris, colours are accurate and there's a lot of detail visible, even in darker elements. Audio is also engaging with clearly intelligible dialogue and some nice pans round out a strong audio track.
Extra's aren't abdundant but what is there, I found pretty interesting: some deleted scenes and interviews / featurettes.
All in all, a strong recommendation for fans of thrillers / heist movies!
it's THE most WONDERFUL crime OF the YEAR January 2, 2010
B. Lafave (lakeland , fl)
i love this film and its ensemble and frequently ("GET ON THE BUS" , "DO THE RIGHT THING" , "HE GOT GAME" , "CLOCKERS" , "SUMMER OF SAM") its director MR. LEE . i'd highly recommend this picture to anyone who has not seen it . a wonderfully different beast . very smart and gratifying . bravo SPIKE . and thanks again .
 HORRIBLE. January 2, 2010
T. Reimherr (United States)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
This movie was a WASTE of 2 hours.
Horrible plot.
Horrible music.
Horrible character development.
Horrible cinematography.
Horrible random pointless scenes.
Horrible beginning.
Horrible middle.
Horrible ending.
Horrible movie.
My favorite part about this film is writing this review.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 240
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