Rating of
3/4
Pretty interesting mystery
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/02/08
A group of what appears to be painters enters a New York City Bank, and lock the doors. One of them then disables the security cameras with a flashlight equipped with an infrared light.
They then reveal high-powered weapons, and ordering everybody on the ground. When they secure the place, they order all the adult hostages to strip down to their underwear, and put on clothing identical to their own. The strange thing is, they aren't interested in the vault.
Two NYPD detectives are assigned to the case, and head to the scene to negotiate with the robbers/hostage takers. One of the detectives, played by Denzel Washington, believes that there is a lot more to the story than the villains are telling the authorities through released hostages.
The bank's president (Christopher Plumber) has a secret in the bank that the hostage situation is taking place in, and to keep it secret he hires an independent negotiator (Jodie Foster) to go into the bank and put his secret into her hands to bring it out and away from the NYPD.
There are some real strong performances in this movie. Washington is believable in his role as a police detective/hostage negotiator. Foster, who is not in the movie that much actually, also puts forth a strong performance. In fact, the entire cast is good.
The script was strong, and interesting, although I think there may have been some plot holes. The flashback and interrogation scenes helped advance the story nicely.
The soundtrack was pretty unique. To me, many of the songs appeared to have African influences. There were no classic tunes everybody knows, and no annoyingly catchy songs that you'll be humming for a week after seeing the movie.
There are numerous twists in this film that are spread out just enough so you will notice them. Spike Lee did a very good job with everything in the direction of this movie.
