INSIDE MAN
He knows police will cordon off the bank, roll out the orange-tape perimeter, set up a command post, call in the hostage negotiation team, quibble with him over his demands, try to subvert his operation and mostly wait and see what he will do next.
And so Russell, precise man that he is, can plan and pull off the perfect bank robbery.
Now the question is, how will he escape?
Positioned outside the bank are a couple of detectives, Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) and Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and the captain in charge of the tactical command John Darius (Willem Dafoe). Darius is a pro but Frazier and Mitchell are in over their heads, and they know it. Good men, good cops but ill-equipped to grapple with the machinations of Russell.
Frazier and Mitchell are the negotiation team. Darius is the guy who sends in the SWAT team when all else fails, or first blood is shed.
Russell and his crew hustle the hostages into a room and force them to strip down to their underwear and don blue jumpsuits with hoods. Their faces are covered with white masks and sunglasses. All of which makes them indistinguishable from the robbers.
Into the mix comes the bank's founder and board chairman, the distinguished Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer) whose first question when informed of the robbery in progress is "Was anybody hurt?"
But Case has secrets, and they're locked inside a deposit box in the vault of that bank. To ensure they stay there, he hires Madeline White (Jodie Foster), a problem solver along the lines of Harvey Keitel in "Pulp Fiction" - only Foster's Ivy League and her clientele is strictly uppermost crust. She steps into the situation, a mix of arrogance and superiority.
(As long as we're drawing film references here - the intense "Dog Day Afternoon" and the spastic "Quick Change" are also paid tribute by Lee and writer Russell Gewirtz.)
While Frazier and Mitchell are trying to get the hostages out alive, White is managing a separate negotiation with the robbers to protect her client's interests. Walk away from the safe deposit box and nobody gets hurt, everybody gets rich - that's her basic pitch.
The longer the hostage situation goes on, the less clear it becomes just who is a bad guy and who is a good guy - and I mean that both literally and philosophically.
What stands out in "Inside Man" from the typical thriller is - as in any Spike Lee picture - that it is packed with smart lines, intellectually challenging situations and crafty humor.
At one point, Russell sits beside a young hostage who is playing a "Grand Theft Auto" style game on a portable game device. When the boy explains its ultraviolent nature, Dalton is dismayed. "I have to tell your father about this game," he says dryly.
When a bank executive claims to have left his cell phone at home, Russell finds his number and calls it. The ring-tone is Kanye West's "Gold Digger.
Despite a glaringly obvious hole (or two), "Inside Man" is a nice piece of entertainment, with a dazzling resolution that you can debate until the sun comes up.
This is Washington's fourth movie with Spike Lee and the two men talk about their relationship on the DVD extras in a nice feature. The 25-plus minutes of deleted scenes provide some interesting expansions to the story. There is the traditional making-of feature and a commentary track by Lee.
ALSO THIS WEEK
"Brick" (Universal, 3 stars) A rough-and-tumble murder mystery set in a modern-day Southern California high school but with all the style, language and panache of a 1940s film noir thriller. Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt of "3rd Rock From the Sun") is a loner drawn back into high school society after he gets a desperate plea for help from his ex-girlfriend (Emilie de Ravin). The search for clues leads Brendan down a dark and dangerous trail, to a character known as The Pin (Lukas Haas) and a femme fatale named Laura (Nora Zehetner of TV's "Everwood"). Fledgling writer-director Rian Johnson was given a Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival for this low-budget film. DVD bonus features include 20-plus minutes of deleted scenes, a feature on casting roles and a commentary track by cast and filmmakers.
"Don't Come Knocking" (Sony, 2 1/2 stars) Sam Shepard wrote and stars in this story of an out-of-luck Western star who drops out of Hollywood and heads for Elko, Nev., where he discovers a grown son (Gabriel Mann) and a lost love (Jessica Lange) and trouble in the form of a private detective (Tim Roth). Wim Wenders directed. DVD extras include audio commentary by Wenders, deleted scenes, featurette on the New York premiere and another on Sundance, as well as an interview with Wenders and Eva Marie Saint, who stars as Shepard's mother.
"Bring It On: All or Nothing" (Universal, 2 stars) The third in the growing high-energy franchise of teen-targeted stories about competitive cheerleaders and the universe, which clearly revolves around them. In this one, a popular (very important word) student/cheerleader moves from upscale Pacific Vista to multiethnic Crenshaw Heights, where she eventually cheerleads her way into the hearts of her contemporaries. Eventually though, her new crew must face her former friends in competition - and boy, are the pom-poms going to fly. Stars Hayden Panettiere, Solange Knowles-Smith and hip-hop star Rihanna. DVD extras: gag reel and a quartet of featurettes on cheerleading and the movie.
"Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector" (Paramount, 1 star) If you've ever suffered through the Blue Collar Comedy Tour then you know what this is about. If you haven't, consider yourself lucky and move on.
"The Lost City" (Magnolia, 2 1/2 stars) Actor Andy Garcia directs and stars in a heartfelt paean to the romantic Cuba that fell to Castro in the late 1950s. In his version, the dictator Fulgencio Batista, the rebel leaders Fidel Castro and Che Guevara all had blood on their corrupt hands. Garcia is gutsy enough to play against popular perception of the revolution and comes away with a challenging and entertaining movie as well. Co-stars Spanish actress Ines Sastre. Look for Dustin Hoffman as Meyer Lansky and Bill Murray as The Writer. DVD bonus features: Making-of feature, commentary track and deleted scenes.
"Cavite" (Magnolia, 2 stars) Another low-budget indie gem. A Filipino living in San Diego, Adam (Ian Gamazon) must return to his native country to save his kidnapped family. He is tethered to his terrorist tormentor by his cell phone as he roams the city of Cavite (near Manila) doing his bidding while trying to bring him down. Along the way he rediscovers his own lost heritage. Gamazon co-wrote and co-directed the film with Neill Dela Llana.
IT CAME FROM TV
Surprise hit "Prison Break" (Fox, season one) stars Wentworth Miller as a structural engineer who breaks into a prison to free his wrongly incarcerated brother (Dominic Purcell). That's right, breaks "into."
Other television seasonal sets available this week include animated comedy "Xiaolin Showdown" (season one); single mom Daphne Zuniga moves to New York in "Beautiful People" (Sony, season one); Will Smith leads a classic, "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (Warner, season four); gritty sociopolitical drama set in Baltimore, "The Wire" (HBO, season three).
Also, four gay African-American friends survive in Los Angeles in "Noah's Arc" (Paramount/Logo, season one) and beautiful people act mean in "Laguna Beach" (Paramount/MTV, season two).
FROM THE VAULTS
"The Frat Boy Collection" (Fox, three discs) For that really special someone in your life who never grew up and out of college, three comedies that reveled in booze-sodden stupidity and hyperfantasized about seminude co-eds - in other words, three of the best of the genre: "Bachelor Party," "PCU" and "Porky's."
"The Jayne Mansfield Collection" (Fox, three discs) For every pop cultural iconic yin, there's a yang: Beatles and Rolling Stones, for example. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Microsoft vs. Apple. Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield for another. It is Mansfield's turn to get a little love: Three comedies starring the buxom blonde - "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?," "The Girl Can't Help It," and "The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw."
© Copley News Service
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