Inside Man: Most Wanted

Browsing Netflix I noticed a bank robbery film with a title similar to my favorite in the genre, Inside Man. I thought that it was a cheap trick to click-bait the name of a more famous film to draw attention, but I proceeded to give it a try anyways. To my disbelief, Inside Man: Most Wanted is the legitimate follow-up to Spike Lee's 2006 crime drama. My awe was compounded further by the vast difference in budget between the two films, which presents in spades with the CGI and hired talent of the latest installment. The story had enough going on that you couldn't guess exactly what the outcome was after 15 minutes, but not enough to overshadow its beaten tropes and TV crime drama feel.

So, this movie is practically a top to bottom remake of a 2006 Denzel and Owen film of the same name, minus the "Most Wanted" bit. Bank robbers come in, seemingly trap themselves inside a no-escape situation, then pull off some ingenious plan that's only revealed to the audience in the last act. Along the way you're meant to empathize with at least some of the robbers so that you're rooting for them to get away, and so is the main police/FBI character because he's dealing with completely unsympathetic bureaucrats and powerful one percenters that he/she hates and so does the audience.

The problem, apart from the fact that this has already been done in a better version, is that because they reveal the connection to the previous film right in the opening scenes (and the title), you already know what's going to happen by the end. They don't change anything significant, really. I watched the movie with a friend, and by the half way point when they revealed a key plot element we both guessed the twist and how it was going to happen. And, apart from a couple of minor details, we were spot on. Which means, as far as I'm concerned, that actual law enforcement types who do this for a living would have seen some element of this coming from a mile away.

The whole thrill of a movie like this is that turn. To work, it has to be subtly hinted at in ways that you overlook early on but can look back at later, and it has to come as a surprise. It's very much like a magic act. If they hide too many details it feels like they're cheating, and if they don't surprise you with the reveal you lose that sense of wonder, which is the whole point of the movie.

Anyway, despite the underwhelming finale, the main characters were reasonably charismatic and entertaining to watch. And it's on Netflix, so if you have the streaming service you don't have to pay anything extra to see it. So I suppose if you find yourself needing to kill an hour or two it's a reasonably inoffensive way to while away the time, provided you've got nothing else better to do.

This felt like a lifetime movie. Writing was horrible and one dimensional, music/score was bad, lighting was bad, directing couldve been better.

the acting was also for the most part horrible with the exception of the girl from better call saul. accents for several of the actors were all over the place.

the original was leagues better than this one. they tried to tie it in as much as possible to the original but it just felt awkward.

you can easily tell it was a direct to dvd kind of movie. if you're really bored one night or on a plane with nothing to do it wont hurt to watch this but i wouldnt go out of my way to watch it

Remember that inside man was first made on 2006, if you watch the first movie, you can see how similar it is to money heist, don't get me wrong I love money heist, but please do your research before you look like an idiot.

This movie has no reason to exist. Exact same twist, horribly written, not well directed, and the movie looks bad. Flat lighting, bad color, and the acting is not good. You'd think with all the powerful software out there today, they could've tried to make the movie look good in post, but no it just looks flat and bland. Someone doesn't know what they're doing. Just watch the original with great stars and acting. No reason to watch a cheap remake with no name actors and bad cinematography and even worse finishing touches. This is lazy bad filmmaking from A to Z. And work on the scripts 1440. You can do better than this, all you have to do is try just a bit harder!