Sunday, April 02, 2006

A Spike Lee Joint

I saw The Inside Man starring Denzel Washington. I know what some of you might say. "Jack, I thought you were all about Slither and seeing that," well it was showing at an inconvenient time, so get over it. Despite the fact that the person who accompanied me to the viewing fell asleep, I felt that it was quite a good movie. One warning though, don't go into it thinking that you're seeing an action film. Despite the fact that the movie is about a bank heist it features minimal violence and is defiantly more about the psychological aspects of the heist that it being a flat out robbery. I like the soundtrack, it seems to be some sort of mix of African and urban beats, pretty cool sounding especially the opening track. The actors are all very intense, especially the lead bank robber, Dalton Russell (Clive Owen). Actually bank robber doesn't quite fit who the character is, he's more of a heist mastermind. I think this film makes a clear difference between a bank robbery and a bank heist. Robberies are more of an impulse gun's waved around smash and grab type thing. A heist is a thought out plan with specific goals and strategies planned out ahead of time. I feel like I really identify with the main character. I'm not giving away any spoilers here, because Russell points this out in the first few minutes of the movie. The reason he's pulling off this bank robbery (and I feel that it's important to keep this in mind throughout the movie, because it makes a lot of stuff make more sense) is because he can. I'm pretty sure that this would be reason that I'd want to pull off most crimes. Sort of a thrill to be able to pull off something that people put so much effort into protecting against. I sometimes find myself coming up with plots just for fun. Not really anything I would actually do, but I've always wondered if I could pull something off.

***SPOILERS***
I've read some criticisms of the movie, many of which I really don't agree with. For instance once questioned the fact that Dalton leaves the ridiculously valuable ring for the police to find. I feel like these people completely miss the point of the robbery. Like I said before, he's doing it because he has come up with a plan to pull off the perfect crime. The money isn't nearly as important to him as the ability to pull this off.
***END SPOILERS***

Here come the butterflies

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