Long before Chiwetel Ejiofor discovered another dimension in Backrooms and joined the MCU in Doctor Strange, he appeared alongside Denzel Washington in a top-notch crime thriller that just scored a new streaming home. Released in 2006, the Spike Lee Joint revolves around an elaborate Manhattan bank robbery that turns into a high-stakes battle of wits between a master criminal and a determined police detective.
Denzel Washington & Clive Owen Match Wits in a Superb Heist Thriller
Hitting theaters on March 24, 2006, Inside Man stars Washington as NYPD Detective Keith Frazier. Ejiofor plays his partner in the film, Detective Bill Mitchell. When a meticulous bank robber named Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) orchestrates an apparently foolproof heist and takes control of a Manhattan bank, Frazier is brought in to negotiate with Russell and bring the crisis to a peaceful end.
However, everything is not as it seems in Inside Man, and when Madeline White (Jodie Foster) shows up on behalf of the bank’s wealthy chairman, things get even more complicated in the twisty crime thriller, which unfolds through a series of misdirections that help make it a suspenseful, intelligent movie rather than a film that relies solely on action.
Clocking in at 129 minutes, Inside Man holds a Certified Fresh rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of Washington’s highest-rated movies. Like most of Lee’s productions, the director brings his own take on race, class, and power to the film, which critic Matthew Simpson of ForReel Movie News and Reviews called “one of the best-cast and slickest heist films of the 2000s.” Michael Kleinschrodt of Times-Picayune agreed, adding that it’s “Spike Lee’s most polished effort in years.”
Still, despite the high praise, it should be noted that Inside Man does drag in places and overstays its welcome by about 20 minutes, but all in all, it’s still a superb thriller. The vast majority of viewers agree, as they scored it 85% on the Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter, and called it everything from “clever and original” to an “underrated film.”
‘Inside Man’ Secures New Streaming Home
Currently, Inside Man isn’t available on any major streaming platform in the United States, meaning the only way to watch it is through a digital rental or purchase. All that will change next month, though, as Washington and Ejiofor’s exceptional crime thriller has just secured a new home.
Per MovieoftheNight.com, Inside Man is set to land on Starz in the U.S. on Nov. 1. That will open up the film to a whole new crop of viewers, and potentially introduce it to folks that have never seen the 2006 classic. The performances of Washington and Owen definitely make it worth it, and seeing Ejiofor before he scored an Academy Award nod for Best Actor thanks to 12 Years a Slave is an added bonus.
Next up for Washington is the Netflix thriller Here Comes the Flood, which is set to drop in 2027. As for Ejiofor? He’ll not only star in next year’s adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone, but he’ll also play a prominent role in Mike Flanagan’s The Exorcist: Martyrs.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
