Robbery can be said to be a traditional Hollywood show. And the more you play, the more thrilling you are, and the more advanced you are. Some are just for money, such as "Ocean Eleven", and some are competitions between robbers, such as "Score". But revenge with a sense of justice like "Inside Man" is rare. Not to mention, the robbers played extremely advanced, not to mention the refurbishment, but also full of human touch.
The end-of-the-century robbery that took place on Wall Street in New York was the result of a bloody murder of Jewish people half a century ago. This is not so much the whims of the robbers as it is that the playwrights are too imaginative. Hollywood movies have never been as nice to bankers as they have ever been to politicians such as senators or even presidents. The owner of "Ocean Eleven" gets some sympathy for being a casino owner. The owner of "Inside Man" didn't get that kind of treatment because he was a banker. The film reveals the banker's owner's trump card with some mischief: he once took the lives of Jews and did bloody business with the Nazis. A banker with such a criminal record, let alone being robbed or killed, will not let the audience shed tears of sympathy.
Based on this premise, the robbers not only robbed rationally, but also robbed very well. The gentleman's demeanor is needless to say, and the warmth is of course indispensable. However, this time it was not used on a lady, but with the help of a black child, which fully showed the robber's humanity. What's more, the weapons in the hands of the robbers are actually children's toy guns.
Most staggering is the overall conception of the robbery. The robbers unexpectedly forced the hostages to wear costumes of their designs, and ended up mingling with the hostages and swarming out. The police spent a lot of effort, but in the end they couldn't figure out who was the robber and who was the hostage. What's more, the police investigation showed that nothing was missing from the bank. Because what was really stolen was a secret 50 years ago, without any records. Even if the police are very suspicious about this, there is no way to file a case for investigation.
When the bags of diamonds hidden by the banker finally returned to the hands of an old Jewish man, the audience was secretly excited. Where is this robbery, it is clearly revenge and justice. Robbers become heroes. The successful robbers may hope that all the bankers in the world have such ill-gotten gains in order to allow heroes to continue to be useful.
The idea of "Inside Man" seems to be quite righteous. Just think about it carefully, but it's not without humor in the bones. In order to find a justifiable excuse for the robbery, he simply linked the owner to the Nazis. The effect of robbing a criminal or devil is quite different from robbing an innocent banker.
Perhaps in order to dispel the possible sense of comedy, the film deliberately chose Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster to play the male and female lead characters. It is Hollywood's consistent style to find big-name stars to make thieves films. "Ocean Eleven" used a large number of big-name stars such as George Croney, Brad Peter, Julia Roberts, etc. "Score" invited Rob De Niro not to mention, but also invited Marlon Brando. In contrast, "Inside Man" is not a big deal when it comes to inviting big-name stars. And, whether it's Denzel Washington or Jodie Foster, it feels a little old. Its demeanor and charm are far from what it used to be. But it is also this twilight that further reflects the wisdom and vitality of the robbers.
"Inside Man" is also just right in the choice of location. New York is not only a place where bankers gather, but also a city with the highest concentration of Jews. Coupled with the fact that New Yorkers are well-informed, they are a group that is most likely to breed high-IQ behavior.
However, in terms of the style of the film, color, light, etc., this film is obviously not as good as the "Score" set in Montreal, Canada. The workmanship of that film is very sophisticated. The French-style architecture, the elegant light, the stolen staff, and the aristocratic demeanor of Marlon Brando are not only thieves, but also noble. Compared with the elegance of "Score", the production of "Inside Man" is obviously a bit rough, especially in the allocation of pictures and light, there is no style at all.
The easiest thing to overlook in mind games is the style of art. No matter how high intelligence is, it is different from art after all. Although the "Inside Man" was exhausted, there was not much reverberation. The same thieves film, "Score" is obviously more worth pondering. Intelligence can provide content to art, but it is not the essence of art. Cinema art to the point of playing intellectually like "Inside Man" is not a kind of growth, but a kind of exhaustion, an aesthetic exhaustion.
When I walked out of the theater after watching "Inside Man", I felt that the writers were smart, then Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster were getting old, and finally I felt that Hollywood movies, although still authentic, were out of breath after all. The exquisite conception cannot hide its increasingly depleted aesthetic heritage. "Score" is worth watching more than twice, while "Inside Man" is enough to watch once.
Written in New York, March 31, 2006
View more about Inside Man reviews
