Inside Man (2006)

Synopsis: The Manhattan Trust Bank is invaded by robbers; they take everyone in there hostage. Their modus operandi baffles the police. The contents of one safety deposit box holds a secret which, if revealed, will expose a very important person.

Appraisal (SPOILERS): Laborious plot; the writer tried to think of everything but apparently couldn't. I took the following text from the IMDb Message Board:

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Can someone reasonably explain this?

by dcobbimdb (Wed Jun 6 2007 18:23:03)
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There's a couple timing issues I have, and they may just be oversights that they figured the viewer wouldn't catch onto or maybe I'm 2 bottles short of a 6 pack, lets find out :) 1. The crime happened, Dalton was hiding for a week in that little room they built. So a week later Frazier goes to the bank to unlock that lock box. You would think that the bank owner Case within that time would have checked out the lock box himself to see if it was touched or whatnot. So that means that the ring stayed in that box for a week until Frazier went there with a court order to get it out??? Doesn't add up why Case wouldn't have gone through it prior... 2. Along the same lines, it shows at the very end of the movie that Frazier finally gets together with his girlfriend... So you mean to tell me that his girlfriend is just laying in bed for a week waiting for him to get done with and wrap up the case? That's at least how they portrayed it in my eyes. 3. Possibly an editing error. When they first storm the bank and throw out the smoke bombs, one of the robbers throws two smoke bombs. One hits the top step and goes backwards. The next scene it shows from his perspective where you see two smoke bombs roll out onto the floor. Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie and have seen it multiple times (mainly cause I wanted to figure out exactly who the bad guys were and watch there interactions earlier on in the movie when they blended in with the hosteges.

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I actually think that the whole plan is very flimsy and could fail by a number of reasons. Someone might have thought of checking for people inside after the evacuation, for one thing. Aren't there instruments (heat detectors, whatever) for finding people hiding in a place?
As for the whole Nazi connection, it is absurd to think that the guy would store incriminating evidence against him instead of destroying it. If he was stupid enough to do it, there are dozens who weren't, so what's the big deal? Anyway, these are weak spots of a movie which is otherwise watchable.

Rating: 43