http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/insideman

Inside Man
Universal Pictures
Inside Man reviews

Metascore: 75 Metascore out of 100


MPAA RATING: R for language and some violent images

Starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Plummer, and Chiwetel Ejiofor

Acclaimed actors Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster come together to explore the lure of power, the ugliness of greed and the mystery of a perfect robbery in this combustible new crime drama. The powerhouse actors play tough New Yorkers who must outwit one another to protect competing interests in this skillfully penned and tightly helmed thriller. (Universal Studios)

GENRE(S): Crime | Drama | Mystery | Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY: Russell Gewirtz
DIRECTED BY: Spike Lee
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: March 24, 2006
RUNNING TIME: 129 minutes, Color
ORIGIN: USA

What The Critics Said


91
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The jazzish score, by Lee's music man, Terence Blanchard, is typically intrusive. But the mood is right, the twists are new. And with one casting inspiration, Inside Man furthers the rising stardom of Chiwetel Ejiofor (Serenity).
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89
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
As with all of Lee's films, there's much more going on beneath the surface than is immediately apparent.
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88
USA Today Claudia Puig
Inside Man may be a cat-and-mouse game, but it's far from predictable. What could have been a straightforward thriller is unusually clever, visually captivating and unfailingly entertaining.
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83
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
With juicy supporting roles for Chiwetel Ejiofor and Willem Dafoe as Washington's fellow officers, the film works best when the characters are just sitting back and shooting the breeze, which is what they're doing much of the time. Here, puzzling out a robbery is more fun than stopping it.
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80
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Smartly plotted by newcomer Russell Gewirtz and smoothly directed by, of all people, Spike Lee, Inside Man is a deft and satisfying entertainment, an elegant, expertly acted puzzler that is just off-base and out-of-the-ordinary enough to keep us consistently involved.
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80
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Boils with humor, surprise and dramatic energy.
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80
LA Weekly Scott Foundas
The heist at the heart of Inside Man is brilliant, and so is the movie.
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80
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
A deft, tense, pure thriller, the movie has great star turns and is brilliantly directed, but it began as an extremely well-crated screenplay by Russell Gewirtz. It's professionally entertaining.
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80
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Filled with playful noise and nonsense, clever feints and digressions, Inside Man has a story to tell, but its most sustained pleasures come from its performances, especially the three leads.
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80
Empire Sam Toy
It's certainly a Spike Lee film, but no Spike Lee Joint. Still, he's delivered a pacy, vigorous and frequently masterful take on a well-worn genre.
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80
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Inside Man is the dull title of a crackerjack crime thriller.
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80
New York Magazine David Edelstein
I found myself savoring a thriller (as well as a Spike Lee “joint”) that wasn't, for a change, in my face.
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75
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The suspense crackles, the acting sizzles and the script, by promising first-timer Russell Gewirtz, keeps tossing surprises like grenades.
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75
Premiere Ethan Alter
The script's flaws are most keenly felt in the Jodie Foster storyline, to the point where her character seems more like a bumbling screw-up than a supposedly sought-after facilitator. Whenever Lee turns the camera back to Denzel and Clive though, the movie works.
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75
ReelViews James Berardinelli
A workmanlike thriller that provides solid performances; a mixture of comedy, tension, and drama; and an engaging storyline. But there's nothing extraordinary about the movie.
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75
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Go with the flow, and it remains a taut and well-engineered thriller. Poke at plot incongruities, as I was doing literally on the way to the parking lot, and it starts to unravel.
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75
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Unexpectedly funny, leisurely paced and oblivious to the demands of its genre, Inside Man has a loose, playful vibe that's at odds with its grave life-and-death scenario.
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75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Lee transforms a generic cops-crooks-and-hostages scenario into a smart, sharp heist movie by the sheer force of his love for, and knowledge of, the city where he lives.
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70
Village Voice J. Hoberman
Inside Man certainly functions as a genre film, but the backbeat of inane banter and schoolyard trash-talking serves to promote an infectious sense of levity.
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70
The New Yorker Anthony Lane
The more it sags as a thriller, the more it jabs and jangles as a study of racial abrasion.
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70
Variety Todd McCarthy
A flashy cast, clever script and vibrant showcasing of New York City as the ultimate melting pot are strong plusses for Spike Lee's most mainstream studio venture.
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67
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
In Sidney Lumet's "Dog Day Afternoon," which only looks better with the years, New York was as much a character in that film as its people. It was a movie that took its cue from the energy of the city. The Inside Man takes its cue mostly from other movies.
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63
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The best scene in Inside Man is one of the simplest, a cat-and-mouser, wherein the hostage negotiator played by Washington pays a visit to Foster's wily manipulator. These two play it so cool, yet so clearly enjoy each other's onscreen company, it's a ticklish reminder of the simple pleasures of screen acting.
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63
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The whole plot smells fishy. It's not that the movie is hiding something, but that when it's revealed, it's been left sitting too long at room temperature. Inside Man goes to much difficulty to arrive at too little.
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60
Dallas Observer Michael Atkinson
Inside Man is irrelevant, another semi-high-tech mega-heist movie, the rhythms and tropes of which we are all as familiar with as we are with the wallpaper facing our toilets.
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58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
A fairly routine heist drama and a never especially believable puzzle film.
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