Inside Man (Blu-ray)

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Denzel Washington and Spike Lee have worked together four times. The veteran actor first worked with the acclaimed director on "Mo´ Better Blues." Two years later he earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance in "Malcolm X." The third film featuring the collaboration of Washington and Lee was 1998´s "He Got Game." "D" as Spike Lee calls Washington is one of today´s strongest and most gifted actors. He has won two Academy Awards for his work. Lee has only earned an Academy Award for his films, but is a very intelligent and gifted director that has entertained us for decades with his films that routinely dive into current social and political issues.

Washington is not the only two-time Oscar winner on the cast of "Inside Man" and Jodie Foster has a pivotal role in Lee´s cop and robber picture. Foster has brought home two Best Actress awards for her performances in "The Accused" and again in "Silence of the Lambs." Oscar nominated character actor Willem Dafoe, Golden Globe winner Clive Owen. Spike Lee´s impressive ensemble cast does not end with these four talented actors. Two-time Emmy and two-time Tony Award winner Christopher Plummer who is best known for his portrayal as a Nazi soldier in "The Sound of Music" portrays a Nazi war criminal in "Inside Man." Up and coming actor Ken Leung has a small part in the film as does the actress familiar to Spike Lee films, Kim Director. Typically, a film starring Denzel Washington and directed by Spike Lee would be good enough to sell tickets, but with Foster, Dafoe, Owen and Christopher Plummer on board, this is one of the more talent heavy films from Lee.

Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) is a criminal who begins the film claiming he has committed the perfect robbery. He is confined to a cell and introduces the audience to his story. This early scene sets the stage for the films numerous interrogation sequences that break the film away from having a linear structure. Very quickly the story moves to the heist mentioned by Russell and a number of masked men break into a wealthy Wall Street bank and round up those who happen to be inside the bank as hostages. Russell and those that work with him force everybody to hand over their cell phones and then strip down to their underwear. After insuring that the hostages will not have any ability to contact the outside world, Russell has the hostages don painter outfits that are identical to what the robbers are wearing. It now becomes impossible to tell innocent from criminal by their clothing.

The robbers were fully prepared for police presence and Detective Frazier (Denzel Washington) and his partner Detective Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) show up on the scene and take control from Captain John Darius (Willem Dafoe). Darius first insults Keith Frazier, but the Detective takes command from Darius and they discuss what they believe the robbers will want and Frazier decides against calling the robbers for their demands for a while and allows them to sit and have Frazier wait for their reaction. During this same time bank owner Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer) meets with a well dressed Madeleine White (Jodie Foster) and he tells her that there is something very valuable in the bank that he does not want to fall into the robbers´ hands. White apparently has power and an ability to work above the police force and meet the demands asked by Case.

As the story moves along, Russell and Frazier come face-to-face and end up in a small altercation. Frazier knows that Russell is stalling and doesn´t particularly care to have a bus or an airplane to escape from the police siege. White had met Frazier and it is revealed that Case was a Nazi war criminal and Russell hints that he has knowledge of an item in a bank safe deposit box that will reveal the true identity of Case. He refuses to meet the demands of White and she then tries to bully her way with Frazier. After the altercation with Frazier, Russell seemingly assassinates a hostage, but this is later revealed to have been a cleverly staged ruse. When the police finally do break into the bank and tear gas and attack the hostages with rubber bullets, there is no trace of Russell and no way of telling who the actual criminals are because their numbers allow them to vouch for each other as not being criminals.

Russell has hidden himself inside of a constructed hiding spot in the bank and he waits for the proper time to simply walk out of the bank. Frazier meets with the mayor and reveals that he has the item that was stored within the safe deposit bank and alerts them that it belongs to a Nazi war criminal and that the mayor should perhaps look into it. White is sitting with the mayor during the confrontation. When Frazier goes home to his girlfriend, he finds a diamond hidden in his coat. At this point, he knows that he had bumped into Russell at the bank and he can only smile after remembering a conversation with Russell about buying his girlfriend an engagement ring and that if Frazier loves her, money is not everything. The film ends and Russell is free, but without the ring that he was apparently after.

"Inside Man" is another quality film from Spike Lee. The film is well written and perfectly acted by its talented veteran ensemble. There have certainly been a number of similar films to "Inside Man" and Lee references "Dog Day Afternoon" in his picture. Interestingly, many actors from "Dog Day Afternoon" take part in the picture and the same actor that delivered pizza to Al Pacino delivers pizza to Clive Owen. However, unlike the other similar genre films, "Inside Man" is far more intelligent and with its high octane cast, it is far superior to any other similar effort. Throughout the film, it is hard to figure out exactly how things are going to end up. The flash-forward interrogations provide clues of what has happened and the audience knows from early on that many of the civilians have been rescued, but are being interviewed as if they are suspects. Russell appeared in a cell during the opening scene, but he walks free at the end of the picture and his detainment is never revealed and this adds a little mystery to the story.

The film also grays the line between good and bad. Arthur Case is the bank owner and he was previously a villain when he took part in Nazi death camps. Frazier is under possible investigation by Internal Affairs and is perhaps a dirty cop, although the film tries to show that he is a good man. When he seemingly accepts the diamond with happiness at the end of the film, it again paints a picture that Frazier may not be the best cop on the street. White is called the dreaded C-Word by the mayor and she appears to be neither good nor bad. The biggest dichotomy between good and bad is the master criminal, Frazier. He seems violent, but he seems concerned when a young boy is playing a violent video game. He stages an assassination, but does not actually harm anybody. His intentions are never quite clear and it is hard to tell if he is robbing the bank to out the identity of a Nazi war criminal or if he is trying to get rich. At the end of the film, it is still not revealed if Russell was a good man or a bad man.