I just caught Spike Lee's, Inside Man on DVD. Let me just say, "wow": I had no idea that Spike Lee could lay such a brick of meaningless, contrived, uninteresting shit. Honestly, the only two parts of the film that I found genuinely enjoyable were the credits opening and closing, over which played Dil Se...'s famous, "Chhaiyya Chhaiyya." The movie, itself, was authentic pretension, served up with obligatory parts and performances (just watch any scene of Jodie Foster's to get a feel of this), wonderfully bland and sanitary villains, irritatingly ineffectual police officers, and a story-line that (though likely compelling on paper) laid all its cards out so soon that all I could do was pick at some gum under the chair until the film was over. It's perhaps not quite so bad as I'm making it out to be, and that's simply because of all the polish that was applied over this other-wise rancid turd of a picture. Everything looks good, sounds immersive, and feel generally "grand." Spike Lee's staple shot of the "guy-on-tracks" is there (and makes about as little sense as it does in most of his works), as her his interesting camera angles and pleasing takes on color schemes for particular scenes. The bad, however, far out-weighs the good. The film isn't realistic and gritty enough to be anything but an ostensible big-budget entertainer, yet, in that department, it packs close to zero thrills. If it's a cerebral experience that was meant to be obtained, then, behold, yet another failure. The plot and its characters don't come off as intelligent or sophisticated, but as the implausible caricatures that we've all most probably seen in countless other, far "stupider," cinematic ventures. In such roles, even usually-celebrated performers such as Jodie Foster and the inerrable Denzel Washington end up struggling to portray characters that actually mean something. All the other elements of this "type" of film are carefully included, as well, albeit less emphasized: the protagonist, of course, has a girl at home that's waiting for him. The hostages bicker and lie, and amongst them rests a cocky young guy who spits in the face of imminent danger. A precocious little "street-tough" kid's present, also (reminiscent of the abomination that was "3-J," on ABC's "Family Matters," some years ago), and of course we all know that he's never in any real danger. The bad guys, again, aren't all that "bad" in this film; they're people with morals, people who wouldn't force a woman to strip off her clothes, people who wouldn't even (SPOILER) bring a real fucking gun to a bank heist. It's not that Spike Lee can't make a good film — we all know that he can. Inside Man, though, takes that step in showing us that even he's capable of turning out a total shit-ball.

I thought it was only me! I thought Italian Job was better so did Ocean Eleven! Jodie Foster was wasted!

I thought the film was OK, but could've been alot better. It certainly wasn't gritty enough and in some parts resembled a TV movie. But the inclusion of Chaiyya Chaiyya over the title credits was one of the worse things about the film. It was totally stupid and not needed.

arsh, you think Italian Job was better? I feel sorry for you. Unless you meant the 60's version?

NP!! I appreciate your opinion! I enjoyed that action better! Give me THE INTERPRETOR, FLIGHT PLAN any day over inside man! I'll take it!

I agree that "Chhaiyya Chhaiyya" was completely unrelated to the content of Inside Man, and believe that Spike Lee most likely chose to include it as something that "sounds cool, and will have most people scratching their heads as to the origin of." Nonetheless, it was a nice surprise hearing it, and I must say that it sounded a hell of a lot better on the Inside Man DVD than it does on Dil Se...'s.

Films about bank robberies are made frequently enough, and I just don't get what Spike Lee was going for in this movie. It seems to have garnered decent critical reviews, and even holds a "7.5" rating on IMDb.com; nonetheless, all I see in it is pretentious, windy, uninteresting crap. Again, Denzel seems never to come under any fire for his performances, but — be it he, his character, or a combination of the two — he most certainly didn't strike me as "impressive" in this picture. Honestly, though, I feel that, if not for Malcolm X, and Denzel's performance in it, Washington simply would not be hailed the way he is: as a phenomenal "actor." He'd just be another performer who tends to do good work, but is largely left out of haughty conversations about "true talent." I'm not saying that he wasn't awesome in Training Day, but it's just not a performance that, on its own, would have established him as "great"; it's more the type of thing that makes people feel he's "not only great, but 'versatile.'"

Really, I wasn't harsh enough when it came to Jodie Foster. Here, I do feel that it was more her shallow and two-dimensional, typical character that held her back, but I didn't catch Foster doing much — except pulling cocky, knowing smirks out of her ass ever ten–twnety seconds (I'm not praising that, by the way) — with her part.

Overall, it's Clive Owen who most impressed me. It's hard to make yourself stand out when you spend half a movie behind a mask, yet, Owen — with his voice, his body language, and his sheer presence — made sure that if there was any one positive point about Inside Man, it would be he.

I guess all I can say is that I hope Spike's next "joint" is more "25th Hour" and less "Inside Man."

I watched inside man, expecting it to be a jodie foster film, and a good heist story and I was disappointed!!Why the heck, she would accept such peony role I did never care if it was Siky's film!

I did like Malcolm X though!

I think Chaiyya Chaiyya was Spike Lee reaching out to the NY desi community to "Come see my films". He even had a Sikh character in it (mistaken for an Arab - I found that bit funny).

I like most of his films especially those that focus on racial tensions in NY, like Do the right thing and Jungle Fever. He does for Black people what Scorsese does for Italians.
I even like his more recent non-black-cast films like 25th hour and Summer of Sam.

Do the right thing is one fantastic movie... one of my favourites..

I'm a fan of Spike Lee’s work as a film director, and his filmography are always worth a look.

Others films worth a mention are Jungle Fever, X, Clockers and Bamboozled.

I personally think his style of directing is akin to the old school style of Hollywood film-directing...such as Elia Kazan or Sidney Lumet. It’s therefore easy to understand why he made Inside Man the way he did. It’s a shame that it was heavily criticised, all for the wrong reasons.

I look forward to his Documentary film on "Katrina" which is showing this weekend on BBC 4 (UK).

Alot of the non-desi people I know that have seen Inside Man originally thought the Chaiyya Chaiyya song was an Aferican composed beat until I told them the truth about where it came from. With regards to the film, I think Spike Lee does a good job in exposing the ignorance many people(explicity Americans I figure) have about the many different heritages from around the globe. The joke is on us all really. Having said that, I think a far better film that does a better job in depicting more complex issues in a satirical fashion about sensitive matters is Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Oh, my god: I cannot express in writing just how virulently I loathe Sacha Baron Cohen. I'll admit, I haven't seen Borat, but — upon the insistence of someone I once knew — I did catch a couple of episodes of "Da Ali G Show." I don't think that it's that I didn't "get" the humor, so much as it is that I hated it. I just found Cohen and his "characters" utterly idiotic (I realize that they're satires, and not meant to be bright), and I suppose, for that reason, despite grand ticket sales and good reviews, I just can't bring myself to sit through anything else in which Cohen is involved. There: I got that off my chest — .

I saw this film and liked it, though the naked fighting scene was a bit too much to watch. It really confirms what the rest of the world has thought about America for so long...that America is full of stupid people!

I love the bit when Borat is in the stadium and sings the Kazakh national anthem and says "We hope George Bush sucks the blood of every Iraqi Man, Woman and Child", the audience just didn't know how to react.

theres a another hollywood movie with an indian song in its credits- but this time the end credits of the movie V for Vendetta- chura ke dil mera (main khiladi tu anari) and pardesi pardesi (raja hindustani) are remixed together - its pretty cool

Love that movie — .

Notebly the Wachowski Brothers who produced V for Vendetta and were also behind the Matrix trilogy had a Vedic Sanskrit mantra playing over the end credits of The Matric Revolutions. Maybe they have a thing for Indian music.