Inside Man, Blu-ray (2006/2009)
Starring: Denzel Washington, Clive Own, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Director: Spike Lee
Studio: Universal Pictures
Video: 2:35:1 anamorphic/enhanced for 16:9 1080p HD
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; French, German, Castilian, Spanish, L.A. Spanish (!), Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Traditional Mandarin, Greek
Subtitles: English SDH; French, German, Castilian, Spanish, L.A. Spanish (!), Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Traditional Mandarin, Greek
Extras: Feature Commentary with Spike Lee; Deleted Scenes, “The Making of Inside Man,” Number 4: Spike Lee and Denzel Washington discuss their collaborations.
Length: 129 min.
Rating: ****
Spike Lee’s Inside Man is a bank heist thriller that keeps you guessing almost up to the very end. When three bank robbers dressed as painters, led by Clive Owen, seize control of a New York City bank and force everyone inside to wear identical painter’s clothes, Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) is brought in to defuse the situation without any hostages getting killed. When the bank’s president, played by Christopher Plummer, learns his bank has been taken hostage, he brings in professional fixer Madeline (Jodie Foster) to make sure a secret he has hidden in a safety deposit box isn’t discovered. Since I don’t want to reveal too many of the film’s twists, I’ll merely drop the hint that having the hostages dressed exactly like the robbers creates quite a few problems for the police.
Inside Man, like most thrillers, is greatly served by the Blu-ray format. The DTS-HD Audio is crisp and sharp, and if you have the luxury of surround sound, it creates an immersive experience that’s as close as you can get to seeing it in the theater. While the film is mostly in muted colors, the picture quality allows for noticing the rich mix of subdued blues and grays and browns, as well as the effect created by small pockets of bright colors, like those found on neon restaurant signs and police lights.
One of my favorite extras was “Number 4,” a discussion between Lee and Washington about their four films together. Though it’s difficult to tell how personal of a friendship the two men have, it’s clear they have an incredible professional camaraderie and each man respects the other deeply. Washington talks about using an unconscious connection to his ancestors to summon the power necessary for his role as Malcom X, while Lee, speaking about that same film, jokes that he feared for his life when had to speak to a Nation of Islam representative about the movie.
I highly recommend Inside Man on Blu-ray. Well-acted, well-paced, and full of twists, the film manages to breathe new life into the heist genre.
– Daniel Krow
