Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Inside Man (2006)

4/23/2024

Inside Man (2006) - Lee's delicious heist thriller

♥♥♥♥♥

Text and small, slim stills at slanted angles upon a white background make up this poster for Spike Lee's Inside Man

An elaborate bank heist takes place in New York by a mysterious team of robbers, who take the staff hostage, while a police negotiator tries to get the criminals out without any bloodshed, and the bank's founder hires a fixer to make sure his vault's secrets are not stolen.

Inside Man is written by Russell Gewirtz (Blind Justice (2005)) and directed by Georgian master filmmaker Spike Lee (Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983)), whose 20th feature it is.

It it an intelligent and very well carried out thriller and an unusual Lee 'joint': He did not participate in its writing, as he is wont to do, and it is a more 'straight' genre picture than most of his films. But Inside Man still has the Lee touch: It is rife with buddy mood, and Denzel Washington (The Hurricane (1999)) is terrific as the 'small-time New-Yorker' who saves the day.

The story is captivating, and the performances are way above the standard in most thrillers, most prominently Washington, but Jodie Foster (The Brave One (2007)) is also good as the frightening fixer, and so is Christopher Plummer (Starcrash (1978)) as the conscience-plagued bank founder. There's a keen double-meaning to the movie's title.

Related posts:

Spike Lee: The day after the day after ... the 2019 Oscars

She Hate Me (2004) or, Champion of the Lesbians

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
25th Hour (2002) or, Taking a Second Chance

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

He Got Game (1998) - Lee's basketball classic

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 45 mil. $
Box office: 186 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.13 times its cost)

[Inside Man was released 16 March (Netherlands) and runs 129 minutes. Shooting took place from June - August 2005 in New York. The film opened #1 to a 28.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#4), grossing 88.5 mil. $ (47.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 14.4 mil. $ (7.7 %) and France with 9.3 mil. $ (5 %). The film won an AFI award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 2.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. The film additionally made an estimated 38.6 mil. $ on home video sales in North America alone. Lee returned with 4 TV and short projects prior to his theatrical return Miracle at St. Anna (2008). Washington returned in Deja Vu (2006); Clive Owen (Killer in Red (2017, short)) in Children of Men (2006); and Foster in The Brave One (2007). Inside Man is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

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Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

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Louise Fletcher has passed away

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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4/23/2024

Inside Man (2006) - Lee's delicious heist thriller

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