I am so fucking sick of the "New York mystique" thang. Is it really necessary to get all misty eyed about NYC in a movie review? New York's FINE, if expensive, not some kind of magical place despite what bumpkins and NY nationalists say.

Truly flawless. You have aptly captured the nuances of the movie. When watching the trailers I recongnized the 'snap' of

barbed-wire-electicity-tension between Danzel's (Washington) and Jodie Foster's characters and I wondered about that.

Now I am intrigued after reading this review. It certainly seems like a smart movie, layered and complex...

Thanks!

I've been a Spike Lee enthusiast since "She's Gotta Have It." My small Southern college town didn't merit a mainstream theatre showing, but with a large Historically Black University in town, we were able to get a booking at one of the second-run specialty houses. Since then, I've ridden a roller-coaster of vacillation between admiration, grudging respect, bemusement, astonishment, disappointment and longing for something greater from Mr. Lee.

As a prolific and respected director who happens to be Black, Lee has often side-lined otherwise compelling work with his hyper-personal vision. He has always had something to say, but sometimes it was impossible to hear through the white noise (no pun intended) of his very Spikeness.

His stridently unabashed promotional tactics (a la the Spike TV boondoggle), combined with his bewilderingly rabid NBA fandom created a caricature that was difficult to take seriously. But here comes Ms. Zacharek with encouring news of a well-crafted film that suffers none of the Spikeness that hobbled the mishmased "She Hate Me." Three outstanding actors and a solid script have coalesced under Lee's directorial vision to produce an engaging movie sans blustery media tantrums. In the end, can we ask much more from a movie?

Not only that I adore Clive Owen as the best actor of our time and hope you all see Beyond Borders and the unbearable but necessary Bent too, but Inside Man really grew on me. By the time I got home from the movie theater, I really wanted to go see it again soon.

Everyone is very good in this movie. Clive, Denzel, Foster. They are all in their characters' skins. Defoe doesn't quite have the acting chops (the ease) that the others have, but I would not miss this movie. Do anything to try not to know 'what happens' before you go. Save the reviews and read them after. I'm grateful SZ was so discreet.

This is definitely a film to see on the big screen rather than waiting for the video. It's important that the city is so physically big and the people so self-important but dwarfed by the city itself.

Jodie Foster should just be sent the Best-Supporting Actress Oscar now. She's like a vial of nitroglycerin -- you wouldn't want to jostle her.

The trickiest thing about watching this movie is to just see it on its own terms without trying to fit it into one of your own pre-existing categories. If you can just watch and listen and not pre-think, you'll be rewarded long after most movies have faded.