Reviews

It's nice to see Spike Lee back in film-making. It's even nicer to see he can actually do a mainstream film without shoving the race card every two minutes like he does in his repertoire. Also, it shows he has the skill to handle a big budget movie with skilled actors in every type of character role.

The Inside Man is a movie with a typical bank robbery plot but the scripting, camera shots, dialog and unusual plot twist in the end gives this movie a big thumbs up. Intelligently written, fast paced real life dialog, cutaway shots, and duel cameras on actors from both directions highlight this film and creates the intensity required in a small space thriller. A lot longer than it should at 129 minutes, Spike Lee's skill as a director pieces together current and flash forward scenes right from the get go to hook the audience in what should have been a typical 'bank robbery go wry' second rate TV movie.

Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer, et al, portray characters who get caught up in a bank robbery at Manhatten Trust. A bank that is chaired by CEO Christopher Plummer who has a secret to hide and hires Jodie Foster to diffuse the situation and get that secret out of the safety deposit box before the robbers snatch it. Apparently, he helped the Nazi's during WWII against his own people (Jews) and used the blood money to set up the bank. The downside is he could be charged with war crimes and lose everything if the evidence is found. Hence, the power broking from Foster on his behalf of Plummer's character ad Clive Owen's Dalton Russell, the bank robber. Denzel plays the second rate cop who is forced to handle the hostage negotiations because his predecessor suddenly isn't available. Willem Dafoe plays the head of the tactical squad used to bring the muscle to stop the robbers. Clive Owen does an excellent job as the masked hidden bank robber who is always one step ahead of the detectives (mainly due to a hidden bug).

Overall, it is an excellently executed affair on what would be a typical bank robbing plot. Much of this is due to first-time screen writer, Russell Gewirtz, and the unexpected twist in the film's climax. Spike Lee's experience as an indie type filmmaker can be seen with his unique piecing of the script through flash forwards mixed in with current plot development. His skill as a director in use of camera angles, dual cameras, motion shots, cutaways, and spacing of time kept the film intriguing and suspenseful in what was a dull bank setting. It's best to see this film in a wide screen cinema to get a sense of what Lee is trying to accomplish rather than viewing the future DVD. My only compliant was the movie took too long to get to its conclusion.

Rating: 8/10

I had no preconceptions, misconceptions, or post-conceptions of Dave Chappelle before seeing this docu-film. I had only seen him in a few talk show appearances and knew him with humor of Chris Rock style. I saw the film and knew nothing about his issues with producers, Comedy Central, skits, characters, racist humor, contract problems, or anything else but came away saying this is a great feel good movie depicting the influence of rap amongst urban youngsters and the message these artists are directing to a much wider audience. It is also about generosity of an artist giving back to the community and that all races and cultures, no matter how different, can "get along" through humor and music. Chappelle is a great host adding comedic bits and allowing the interviewed to have their say about what music and life growing up in their neighborhoods has been for them. His low key undertone style was more appropriate for this type of genre then his normally hard edged concert humor.

The music and rap performance numbers are electrifying. Lauryn Hill's vocals in her rendition of Killing Me Softly will make you weep inside. I wish this live version with The Fugees was available on iTunes. I would buy it immediately! Other performances with Kanye West, Common, Mos Def, John Legend, The Roots, Jill Scott, Erikah Bhadu, The Fugees (reunited), DC, et al rocked the party. The background musicians esp. the drummer guy hit every note on time and amazing!

The editing is confusing at first but settles in the middle of the movie reflecting the chaos in putting such an event together. The pacing is slow in the beginning but is humorously broken up by the interviews of neighbors esp. the old white ladies. More importantly, Chappelle let the artists say whatever they want regarding other artists, about life growing up in the projects, about the concert, the people, etc. The best scenes are the rehearsals with Chappelle's sharp one liners cracking up the musicians. His Muddy Waters rendition is absolutely hilarious with everyone falling down laughing! One musician couldn't stop. LOL!

A definite must see docu-drama-comedy-music film. It's a shame we don't see more docu-films like this. Who needs scripted?? Unscripted it's more real and a whole lot of funny.

If you're interested in seeing a film about gangs, corrupt cops, hypocritical officials, I would advise you to rent Training Day with Denzel Washington. This piece of crap seems the elementary student version of its senior. Surprisingly, the best acting comes from Coolio and the younger Latino actresses up to a point. Absolutely a waste of talent and surprised that Theresa Saldana and Robert Vaughan would entertain such a vehicle! I really don't know where to start with this "thing". From stereotypical camera angles, bad acting (like they're reading off a teleprompter bad), fake blood (actually looks fake BTW), poor scripting, worse dialog, etc., etc... my expectations of a rating between 1-3/10 were met.

When the music seems to be the best part of the movie, why need the movie?? Needless to say, I don't think this director will be offered many big budget movies in the near future...

Argh! My head is still spinning. :))