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By Rob Lowman, Entertainment Editor (LA Daily news)
If intelligent action pictures were easy to make, Hollywood wouldn't turn out so many uninspired sequels and puffed-up versions of TV shows. (Witness the curiously flat "Miami Vice" from Michael Mann, a director who can turn out compelling action flicks like "Collateral" and "Heat.")
The maverick filmmaker Spike Lee — of all people — has made a very good one in "Inside Man," a cat-and-mouse story filled with shadowy edges and suspect motivations.
Clive Owen plays Dalton Russell, the leader of an elite team of robbers whose takeover of a Manhattan bank leads to a hostage crisis. Denzel Washington — a veteran of a number of Lee's films (there is a segment on the DVD where the two discuss their collaboration) — is New York police Detective Keith Frazier, who initially tries to negotiate the hostages' release. Jodie Foster plays Madeline White, someone you might call a facilitator. She's been sent to broker a deal, because there is something in the bank that its president (Christopher Plummer) doesn't want to see the light of day.
The script by Russell Gewirtz is clever. The only thing you're sure of is that everybody wants something, though you're not always sure what that is. Lee — who has directed the upcoming HBO documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," about the aftereffect of Hurricane Katrina — juggles the balls adeptly, even throwing in a in a bit of witty social commentary.
Then he's smart enough to put his high-powered actors in the proper light — or shadow, as the case may be — and let them do their stuff. Foster's predatory Madeline is the type who beguiles you with a smile as she slips a knife into your ribs (metaphorically speaking, of course). While Owen and Washington display two different kinds of slickness. Russell has a soothing style even as he orchestrates chaos, and Frazier has an easy demeanor, though you can see him figuring the angles.
What "Inside Man" and all its pleasures bring home is just how good a director Lee is. Most filmmakers would either trip over the material or ramp it up to the point of giving the audience a headache. Yet Lee makes it seem deceptively easy. It's too bad that Hollywood doesn't use him more.
By Rob Lowman, Entertainment Editor (LA Daily news)
If intelligent action pictures were easy to make, Hollywood wouldn't turn out so many uninspired sequels and puffed-up versions of TV shows. (Witness the curiously flat "Miami Vice" from Michael Mann, a director who can turn out compelling action flicks like "Collateral" and "Heat.")
The maverick filmmaker Spike Lee — of all people — has made a very good one in "Inside Man," a cat-and-mouse story filled with shadowy edges and suspect motivations.
Clive Owen plays Dalton Russell, the leader of an elite team of robbers whose takeover of a Manhattan bank leads to a hostage crisis. Denzel Washington — a veteran of a number of Lee's films (there is a segment on the DVD where the two discuss their collaboration) — is New York police Detective Keith Frazier, who initially tries to negotiate the hostages' release. Jodie Foster plays Madeline White, someone you might call a facilitator. She's been sent to broker a deal, because there is something in the bank that its president (Christopher Plummer) doesn't want to see the light of day.
The script by Russell Gewirtz is clever. The only thing you're sure of is that everybody wants something, though you're not always sure what that is. Lee — who has directed the upcoming HBO documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," about the aftereffect of Hurricane Katrina — juggles the balls adeptly, even throwing in a in a bit of witty social commentary.
Then he's smart enough to put his high-powered actors in the proper light — or shadow, as the case may be — and let them do their stuff. Foster's predatory Madeline is the type who beguiles you with a smile as she slips a knife into your ribs (metaphorically speaking, of course). While Owen and Washington display two different kinds of slickness. Russell has a soothing style even as he orchestrates chaos, and Frazier has an easy demeanor, though you can see him figuring the angles.
What "Inside Man" and all its pleasures bring home is just how good a director Lee is. Most filmmakers would either trip over the material or ramp it up to the point of giving the audience a headache. Yet Lee makes it seem deceptively easy. It's too bad that Hollywood doesn't use him more.