Premise: Following the events of the first film, professional thief Dalton Russell begins another cat and mouse game with Detective Keith Frazier.
Writer: Russell Gewirtz
You ain't winning any awards for this one, Denzel
Inside Man was really really good. It was an interesting look at heist movies. Unfortunately for everyone, it also happened to make money. Why is that a problem? Simple, Hollywood is quickly running out of ideas so they need to churn out sequels to every money maker they have. Few of these films are actually worth revisiting.
Inside Man 2 takes an interesting route. Instead of trying to rehash the events that made the first film so great, they go the direct sequel route. It's an interesting choice. Not necessarily a good one, as their really wasn't any need for a continuation.
Anyway, we open with thief Dalton Russell in jail. Keith Frazier, who dons a sling around his arm, is questioning him about the events that have unfolded. What are these events you ask? Well, one week prior, a jewel heist went down. Det. Keith Frazier is at the helm of this investigation, along with familiar face Bill Mitchell. The bank robbery from the first film has had a lasting effect on the detective. Strangely enough, Dalton Russell himself offers the detective his assistant, as he's head of security for this area. (Remember, Frazier has never seen Dalton's face) Over the course of the film, these two form a bond as they take on the case. We're left to wonder why the hell Dalton is doing all of this.
It's not exactly exciting. It may not be a rehash, but that doesn't make it any less unnecessary. The cleverness of the first film has washed away, and we're left with a cop drama for the first half, and bland thriller the last half. It's all got a been-there-done-that feel to it.
The script faces other downfalls. The dialogue being one of them. Most of it was used to let the readers know what exactly was going on, and it seemed so forced. Not to mention the characters feel like mere shadows of their former selves. And the twist ending isn't exactly to write home about either.
Gewirtz does manage to bring in everyone back from the first film. I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but I figured I'd throw that in there. Jodie Foster's not up to much lately, so she'll probably sign back on...
Now I'm just rambling. There's really not much to say about this script. I give Gewirtz props for trying something new, but in the end it is completely unnecessary. That's probably it's main fault and why I'm looking into all of it's negatives instead of praising the few positives it has. IMDB lists Terry George as the screenwriter and Russell Gewirtz for characters, so maybe they totally scrapped this idea. And maybe I really am looking into the negatives to much, because somehow it managed to keep my interest. So this one ends up leaving me puzzled. So many things working against it, yet I managed to stay mildly entertained, much like I felt for Valentine's Day. So I guess I'll give it the same rating...
[] Somebody should be fired
[] Bad
[x] Mediocre
[] Worth the read
[] Great
[] Amazing
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