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Welcome to Movies & Film
Movie Reviews, & Film Industry Commentary
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2006 – R – 129 min.
Director: Spike Lee
Primary Cast: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Stars **** (of 5)
Popcorn **** (of 5)
Film Type(s): Crime, Drama, Bank Robbery, Hostage Taking
Synopsis: Bank robbers take hostages in a heist and outsmart the Police at every turn in this film from Director Spike Lee and Producer Brian Grazer. Mastermind Dalton Russel (Owen) storms a bank on Wall Street, but things gets out of control when it becomes a Cat-and-Mouse game between him and Police Negotiator Detective Frazier (Washington). Or is it out of control? Things only get more intense with the addition of another player in the form of a power broker with a hidden agenda (Foster). Director Brian Howard was originally attached to this film from first time screenwriter Russel Gewirtz, but gave it to Spike Lee when his schedule conflicted with the making of The Davinci Code.
Review: A perfect crime is something that can only happen in the movies, isn’t it? Clive Owen makes for an excellent villain as the Robbery’s Mastermind Russel; addressing we the audience at the start and finish telling us the who, what, when, and where, leaving the ‘How’ for us to discover in due course, scratching our heads the whole time trying to figure out ‘how’ the film will end. One of the films most interesting devices is Russel’s forcing the hostages to don the same painters outfits as the robbers themselves wear in the film, and then proceeds to shuffle them around and placing the robbers in among the hostages so that neither the hostages nor the audience really know who is on who’s side. This allows the movie to also make comments about how we look at others in our society, whether it be Police doubting a freed hostage is innocent because he wears a turban or the only way the Police have of identifying a female subject is her bra size. This film never loses its sense of whimsy or fun while still taking aim with deadly accuracy at the woes and problems of a Post-9/11 world. For Spike Lee fans, it will be fun to look for references to his other films (like the Pizza for the hostages is from Sal’s Pizza from Do The Right Thing). Fans of Dog Day Afternoon may take note, aside from the obvious references, that Marcia Jean Kurtz and Lionel Pina who played a hostage and Pizza deliveryboy (respectively) in that film play a hostage and Pizza delivery Cop in this movie as well.
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