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As far as I can remember, this is the first Spike Lee 'joint' that I've ever seen. Apparently I chose his most conventional film yet to start with, but at least it still showed that he certainly knows what he's doing behind the camera. I found this to be one of the best traditional action thrillers to come out of Hollywood in a long time. This sort of thing used to be pretty common, but lately films like this have gone out of fashion in favour of effects-laden blockbusters. It's essentially a fairly standard bank heist film, just a very well executed one (it reminded me a lot of Dog Day Afternoon, which was even referenced in the dialogue at one point). The script was a good one too, with some great witty lines and a nicely complex narrative. My only disappointment with the film was I didn't find its ultimate direction hugely satisfying after what had come before. However, the ride is a brilliant one. If a film's quality has anything to do with box office takings these days, this deserves to be one of the year's biggest hits so far.
The summary
I found Inside Man slightly anticlimactic, but it sure is gripping right up until the underwhelming last 20 minutes.
