Spike Goes Hollywood in New York

Spike Lee's "Inside Man" is a departure of sorts for the famed director. He's testing the waters of mainstream American movie making and it will pay off handsomely at the box office for him and his backers. One of the things lost here is the very distinctive look of a Spike Lee film. It is replaced by a still good looking and fun to watch film.

What we're left with is a cops and robbers caper with a few twists and turns thrown in. What makes it worth watching is that it usually manages to keep us from predicting what is about to happen in the next scene and at the conclusion. No matter that the conclusion is a bit far fetched and out of whack and hinges on a plot point that runs very counter to the conventional wisdom of what makes Spike tick personally. You'll have to see it to know what I'm referring to.

Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) plays the role of the lowly policeman who is far brighter than all around and above him in the police department. Yeah, we see this in every cop film but Washington has become a good enough actor that we have no problem buying it. Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) is his crooked nemesis here and he too handles his role with great flair. The story unfolds in a confusing manner (a good thing) until all of the pieces are finally in place for the audience to grasp. What is a little bit shaky here is the role of Madeline White (Jodie Foster) who is brought in to save the day, for the bad guys, and no, the bank robber is not the bad guy. Confused? Good.

Once everything is revealed to us it becomes merely a how are we going to tie this all up neatly deal. Lee handles it well while walking through a potential minefield where he could succumb totally to clichés and soft sentiment. For the most part he walks through that minefield unscathed. Think of "Inside Man" as being like Woody Allen's "Match Point" in that it's a stab into the mainstream that while not the director's best work, nevertheless works at the mainstream level. Overlook the sometimes unbelievable little bits of the movie, settle back, and just enjoy yourself.