'Inside' job.

The other day, I heard something rather amusing: that the terrific Spike Lee thriller, Inside Man is reminiscient of the underrated Bill Murray comedy Quick Change. No, really. I heard it here.

SPOILERS AHOY!






(I mean it!)




The comparison is made due to the fact that the robbers manage to get out with the thieves. That seems a tad tenuous, as the methods of escape are quite different. The films are the same inasmuch that the crooks get away with the spoils while going unrecognized by their pursuers until it's too late.

I like to think that Man is more like the classic thriller, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. The banter between Dets. Frazier and Mitchell isn't too far removed from that of Garber and Rico in Pelham, and it's a little hard not to see Dalton Russell and get flashbacks of Mr. Blue. (In fact, the method of codenames is similar, but I believe that Pelham's color-coding is superior to Inside's Steve variations.) Also, echoes of David Shire's excellent score can be heard in Terence Blanchard's music...as well as an inexplicable (if not unwelcome) hint of Shirley Walker (happy birthday, by the way).

This is much like how 16 Blocks was something of a re-do of Eastwood's The Gauntlet. This is what we need a bit more of: not remakes, but films with the feel and heart of classics (and near-classics).