Inside Man

Heist movies have been done to death. We all know the basic idea behind them. Someone gets a brilliant plan, something goes wrong and the robber and a negotiator talk for time on end until a conclusion is reached. In Inside Man Lee doesn't actually move far away from this template. There are occasional moments of alteration and decent performances all around by the cast, but even then it often returns to an embarrassing cliche. In the end I found the movie still watchable but a great disappointment of my expectations.

There are some serious questions of morality and ethics brought up, but not a whole lot in the way of satisfactorily answering them. This movie is really about Clive Owen and Denzel Washington so much so that there isn't actually any reason that Willem Dafoe, Jodie Foster, and Chiwetel Ejiofer (an amazing new face in cinema) are in the movie. In as much as the chemistry of Owen and Washington, it is fun to watch but beyond it the movie is missing something. I can't be sure what.