Netflix has a must-watch crime thriller featuring a Denzel and Spike Lee team-up — and you should stream it before it's gone

With "Inside Man," we're now 33 movies into the Denzel Watchathon. This marks the fourth team-up between Denzel and director Spike Lee, and having seen the previous three (as well as "Highest 2 Lowest," their fifth and most recent movie together), there's no mistaking this movie for anything other than a Spike Lee joint.

This heist thriller is incredibly well-made. It looks polished. It features a great Denzel performance. There's a constant score throughout the near 129-minute runtime, for better and worse. And, like many of Spike's films, it runs just a bit too long.

That's probably the biggest knock against this movie. For as twisted as the movie is, by the end, it's a straightforward story. So it's a bit frustrating that it takes so long for us to get to the end of it.

If I had another fault for this movie, though, it'd be that it fails to use its cast to its fullest. That's not to say it uses its cast poorly; it doesn't. But there are a few people I'd have loved to have seen more from. Specifically, I'd have loved to have gotten more time with Jodie Foster, and a few more interactions between Denzel and Clive Owen, who is ostensibly the bad guy in this crime drama.

If you want to watch this movie before you read on, I have some good news. "Inside Man" is currently streaming on Netflix, one of the best streaming services out there.

Malcolm McMillan

Malcolm has been with the Streaming team at Tom's Guide since 2023, reviewing dozens of movies each year so you don't have to watch the bad ones.

This might be Denzel's most star-studded movie

Denzel is no slouch when it comes to acting alongside great actors and actresses. He's acted with some of the best. Just last week, I covered "The Manchurian Candidate," where he's acting alongside Meryl Streep, Jeffrey Wright and Liev Schreiber

Yet, "Inside Man" might be the most loaded cast he's worked with yet. A heist thriller set in New York — it's a Spike Lee movie; where else could it be? It stars Denzel as NYPD Detective Keith Frazier, and he's tasked with bringing in Dalton Russell, played by Clive Owen. Dalton has taken a bunch of hostages at a bank he's robbing that belongs to Arthur Case, played by Christopher Plummer.

Case has a safe-deposit box at his bank, and he doesn't want anyone to see what's inside it. So he hires Madeleine White to get into the bank and make sure the contents stay secure or get disappeared. She's played by none other than Jodie Foster.

So far, that's Denzel, a two-time Oscar winner; Owen, an Oscar-nominated actor; Plummer, an Oscar-winning actor; and Foster, a two-time Oscar winner herself. I haven't even mentioned Chiwetel Ejiofor, an Oscar-nominated Olivier Award winner who plays Denzel's partner at the NYPD. Nor have I mentioned Willem Dafoe, a four-time Oscar nominee who plays a police captain assisting in hostage negotiations at the bank.

In short? That's an insane cast. Literally every single one an Oscar winner or nominee. Most movies dream of getting one Oscar nominee on their call sheet; this movie has six.

Now, the problem is you can't have all these people in every scene at once. Someone is going to have a lesser part or risk being underutilized.

Unfortunately, that happens to pretty much everyone I just mentioned. Denzel and Owen get used a fair amount, and Denzel probably gets the right amount of screen time. But we have to wait a while for these two to play their game of cat-and-mouse face-to-face. I'd have liked a bit more of them acting against each other in scenes.

Foster is another one I'd have loved to have seen more from. Plummer is used just the right amount for his character, but Foster is a fixer. She could easily have a very active role in this movie, constantly side-by-side with Denzel. But she flits in and out of scenes, sometimes taking off large chunks of time.

One person who at least gets to maximize their time on screen is Ejiofor. Sure, I'd have liked to have seen more of him — I loved him in "Backrooms" earlier this year. But while he's not on the screen a ton, when he is, he gets to cook. Unfortunately, we can't say the same for Dafoe, who is in a role so secondary that probably most competent actors could have handled it.

Verdict: 'Inside Man' is yet another must-watch team-up between Denzel and Spike Lee

Inside Man Official Trailer #1 - Christopher Plummer Movie (2006) HD - YouTube

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Despite this loaded cast not being used quite to its full potential, let me assure you: this is a good movie. It's part "Ocean's Eleven," part "The Usual Suspects." If you make it to the end of the movie, you'll also see it's got a hint of "Munich" to it as well, though I don't want to spoil why.

So go check out "Inside Man" for yourself and watch not just a Denzel movie, not just a Denzel movie with Spike Lee directing, but a movie that features probably the most talented cast either Denzel or Spike has worked with in their careers. Right now, it's streaming on Netflix, the one streaming service you almost certainly have, so there's no excuse not to give it a watch.

Stream "Inside Man" on Netflix now

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