Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars, which is called disappointing.
The quoted review calls it a thriller curiously reluctant to get to the payoff, whose robbery motive and method cannot be accepted, with one character not believable and another not understandable.
The hosts disagree and have no defense for the score; Ebert gave three stars to many mediocre films, and the acting alone should lock in three stars.
A joke suggests Ebert was turned off by the Big Willie and the twins joke in the first minute.

Most Rewatchable Scene

Final Plummer-Foster confrontation; Foster-Denzel courthouse exchange; Albanian-language sequence

In the discussion (16)

Approx. transcript time · 00:33:58Read transcript

The bank-robbery setup comes first: meticulous crime setups are a favorite, with the crew entering in painter jackets with fluorescent strips.
Asked what disguise they would use for a heist, the picks are plumbers and a cable repairman installing the jails network, while another wants only to be the driver.
The driver pitch prompts jokes about a risky U-turn bit and a terrifying wheelman, plus disappointment that the movie has no second switch van.
Watching the people in line invites imagining your own move as a hostage: get straight down with hands visible, or offer to help the robbers.
One of Clive Owen's best scenes is his anger when the Gold Digger ringtone goes off, followed by the strip-to-your-underwear order; it is tense because the character's limits are still unknown, and shuffling the hostages is disorienting.
The first Foster-Plummer scene shows two strong actors, with Foster coming in off the bench, and the conversation is staged on the Brooklyn Promenade for scenery.
The video-game scene is offered as a controversial pick: some found it hacky social commentary, but the speaker enjoyed Owen vibing with the boy, and their son asked if the game was real.
Spike, pushing 50, is seen reacting to a generational gap in hip-hop culture, both criticizing it and trying to understand it; it plays a little old-guy.
Spike also added the imagined raid scene for action; the video game likewise slows the film but gives Owen a quieter moment, and the boy relates more to Owen than to Denzel.
The boy's 50 Cent line is a little clumsy, but Spike committing to it and building the game from scratch is appreciated.
The first Clive-Denzel phone call, with the pina colada and Amber-and-Tiffany back-and-forth, is praised as hard to pull off on a phone.
Other beats listed are the first Owen-Foster meeting, and the hostage-release reveal that everyone is "actually hostage," a voila moment.
The last Plummer-Foster scene, with "I sold my soul" and her Bin Laden's nephew joke, is named the speaker's pick for most rewatchable, a chess match and the exclamation point of the film.
As a cap, the Foster-Denzel courthouse exchange with the Baron Rothschild blood-in-the-streets line is added, along with the interrogations, which the speaker read were improvised but was unsure count as scenes.
A dark-horse pick is the sequence where the police try to identify the Albanian recording: the most New York sequence, with the body-bags line and the woman with the bag of parking tickets.
The two conversations that Foster pivots are the favorites. — Sean Fennessey

What’s Aged the Best?

Interrogation scenes; Albanian subplot; Denzel dolly shot; Rothschild quote; Nazi plot twist; hostage roll call; the boy; Terence Blanchard score; Chaiyya Chaiyya

In the discussion (11)

Approx. transcript time · 00:44:44Read transcript

The interrogation scenes are this speaker's number one aged-best item.
Continuing the Albanian theme is called a first on the show: Albanians in a movie are an automatic yes, with a dream 1988 bank movie involving Albanians.
Asked about his "homeland," the reply jokes about being Albania's most prominent podcaster. — Chris Ryan
Movies such as Taken 2 and Wag the Dog make Albania a go-to country for debauchery and crime.
Subtle touches hold up, including the phone-call argument and the camera trick moving Denzel toward the camera on a dolly after the hostage shooting.
Jodie Foster's Baron Rothschild quote about buying property when there is blood in the streets is cited.
Nazi plot twists work in well-made movies, as in Marathon Man; this is about the last point when a present-day movie could have a functioning Nazi collaborator.
Denzel going through the hostages, including Ken Lung, is cited.
The little boy is cited, with the note that that material was ad-libbed.
Terence Blanchard's booming noir jazz score is praised over a modern soundtrack of songs, compared with Touch of Evil.
The opening and closing song Chaiyya Chaiyya by A.R. Rahman came a couple of years before Slumdog Millionaire, putting Spike ahead of the Bollywood boom.

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Al Palagonia

In the discussion (9)

Approx. transcript time · 00:45:44Read transcript

Al Palagonia's heat-check performance is the best; he is one of the best Spike Lee players. — Sean Fennessey
The heat-check list is the longest in at least 20 movies.
Candidates include Ken Lung, the Albanian translator, the little boy, the bigot cop, the turban guy, the 34D lady, Kim Director as Stevie, and Ransone.
Kim Director was Julia Fox 15 years before Uncut Gems. — Chris Ryan
Lost could have cast several people from this movie.
The Albanian translator gets one vote for owning three minutes before leaving the movie, a classic Spike Lee move.
Another vote is 100% Al Palagonia, a Spike friend often seated with him courtside at Madison Square Garden who is not an actor, playing the construction worker who identifies Albanian.
Palagonia plays versions of that guy in many Spike films, including the "optical illusion" line in 25th Hour.
Conceding being outvoted, the translator backer declares Palagonia the winner.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Nazis; video-game lecture; Chiwetel Ejiofor's New York accent

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 00:50:13Read transcript

"Nazis" is offered as a default aged-worst answer that could be thrown at any movie.
Albania is floated but questioned as possibly aged-best instead.
Liking the movie leaves few aged-worst items beyond nitpicks, except perhaps Spike's era-specific lecture on video games in 2021.
Chuitel Edgifor clings to the New York accent with the British accent sometimes breaking through.
Nothing aged worst; the film sits at a point in technology where cell phones do not undermine the story. — Sean Fennessey

Casting What-Ifs

Ron Howard as director; Denzel Washington as Dalton Russell

In the discussion (6)

Approx. transcript time · 00:52:07Read transcript

Ron Howard was supposed to direct.
Spike Lee let Denzel choose either role; Denzel turned down the Clive Owen part because the character is always in disguise.
Owen nearly turned the role down for the same reason, so scenes of him talking into the camera were added.
Spike cast Amir Ali Saeed as the kid after seeing him in a Chappelle Show sketch.
A hostage named Miriam was played by Marsha Jean Kurtz because she played a bank hostage named Miriam in Dog Day Afternoon, which Spike loved.
The pizza-delivering cop may be a second Dog Day actor, and the pizza comes from Sal's Pizzeria as a callback.

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Peter Kybart; Peter Gerety

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 00:53:32Read transcript

There are about 12 That Guys; the vote goes to Peter Guybert as the mayor, whose name the speaker had to look up.
James Ransone is not a That Guy; the police-truck actors Ashley Atkinson and Chill Mitchell are.
The ultimate That Guy is Denzel's boss, Peter Garrity, from Homicide and The Wire, a celebrated New York theater actor.
Ken Lung was a That Guy until Industry; essentially everyone except the six leads qualifies.

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

Samantha Ivers

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 00:55:20Read transcript

The pick is uncertain because of vote splitting. — Chris Ryan
James Ransone is in the running for the scene where he tells Owen he got the drop on him; he brings wiry Dustin Hoffman New York energy.
Ransone is also slotted for the Recasting Couch, but the response is "I don't want to lose him out of this movie".
Samantha Ivers, "the queen of Hackensack," is nominated for doing Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny times a thousand, and the award is given to her.

Recasting Couch

Queen Latifah in Willem Dafoe's role

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 00:56:08Read transcript

James Ransone is floated for the Recasting Couch, imagining a young 25-year-old actor instead.
Recasting Ransone is vetoed because he is great in it.
Recasting Defoe instead allows role swapping; a female choice such as Queen Latifah, from The Equalizer, is proposed to run ESU.
Tom Barringer, William Hurt, Jeremy Irons, Daniel Day Lewis and John C. Riley are also floated before settling on Queen Latifah.

The Teddy KGB Award for the Actor in a Completely Different Movie

Willem Dafoe

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 00:57:21Read transcript

A new award launched the week before on New Jack City: the Judd Nelson Award for someone who is clearly in another movie; Chris was there and Sean was not.
William Defoe seems to be in a completely different movie, generic and giving nothing interesting to say despite being a multi-Oscar nominee, like an old Law & Order episode.
A partial dissent enjoys Defoe being given nothing to do, while noting his odd introduction as a jerk to Denzel followed quickly by an apology.
Per the internet research, Spike and Defoe met in a men's room during an intermission of a Julius Caesar production with Denzel and agreed to work together, so Defoe feels shoehorned in, mainly setting up jokes.
Judd Nelson's New Jack City performance was the model, and Defoe is called a good first winner.

Clint Howard Award for the Director Loves This Guy

Al Palagonia

The panel proposes a new category here.

In the discussion (1)

Approx. transcript time · 01:03:15Read transcript

Palagonia should also win a "Clint Smith Award" for someone who comes along for the ride with a famous director or actor; Tony Roberts in Woody Allen films is offered as another example.

Half-Assed Internet Research

Filming location; Cartier ring; custom video game; cancelled sequel; straight-to-video sequel

In the discussion (7)

Approx. transcript time · 01:05:07Read transcript

Filming used 20 Exchange Place, a former Wall Street bank turned cigar bar, for exteriors, with the interior built as a set.
The Cartier diamond ring was real, borrowed for three days and valued at $1.5 million.
Bothered by Grand Theft Auto, Spike had graphic artists spend 10 days building the in-film game from mockups of an ATM robbery and a drive-by, and predicted someone would make a real game from it.
In 2011 plans for Inside Man 2 were cancelled because Lee could not secure funding; he called Inside Man his most successful film.
The cancellation is baffling for a near-$200 million hit; star availability may be the issue, but a sequel would surely make $100 million and has name recognition.
A straight-to-video sequel, Inside Man: Most Wanted (2019), exists with none of the original characters and Ray Seahorn from Better Call Saul.
Such bootleg sequels are compared to a Mean Girls 2 that fooled a daughter.

Apex Mountain

Clive Owen; Jodie Foster; Juicy Fruit; Gangstas iz Genocide

In the discussion (10)

Approx. transcript time · 01:08:00Read transcript

Denzel: no. Spike Lee: no.
Clive Owen: yes; 2006 with Children of Men and Inside Man was his apex, among the best two-film years ever.
Jodie Foster in the 21st century: yes, though Flight Plan was a big hit.
Juicy Fruit gets a yes as its best use in a movie, after wondering whether Chuck Yeager chewed it in The Right Stuff.
Gangst is genocide, the in-film video game, also gets a yes.
For fixers, Winston Wolf is apex over Michael Clayton, and Foster's character, who proves ineffective, ranks third.
Bruce Willis's girlfriend in Pulp Fiction is the apex of worst movie girlfriends, with a promise to rip that stretch apart in an in-person Pulp Fiction episode after the pandemic.
On whether it is apex for post-Heat heist movies, the answer is only that it is "in the carousel," mocked as a non-answer. — Chris Ryan
Candidates weighed include Den of Thieves, The Dark Knight, Logan Lucky, Hell or High Water, Widows, Baby Driver, The Town and Fast Five.
The final ranking puts The Town first, Fast Five second and Inside Man third, with Den of Thieves fourth.

Picking Nits

Hostages riding together; mayor's public meeting; flawless hostage cover stories; wall materials; Yankees hat; easy confession; kept Nazi evidence; how Dalton knew

In the discussion (8)

Approx. transcript time · 01:13:15Read transcript

The accomplice hostages all riding together in one car to pick up Owen is an almost unforgivable mistake; it exists to show the whole crew, including the diamond expert hyam.
The mayor meeting Madeline publicly is questioned; the counter is that her philanthropist role gives cover.
Every accomplice hostage passing the post-robbery interviews without a mistake is asking a lot, though the premise is strong.
The biggest nitpick is where the crew got materials to build the fake wall and how it was done in 12 hours.
Anyone wearing a Yankees hat, like Owen's disguise, looks suspicious, prompting jokes about offending Jacko and the Bronx.
Plummer's character admits too easily to being a Nazi diamond smuggler; the counter cites his lip-quiver acting choice at the end of his life.
Keeping Nazi evidence in a safe-deposit box instead of burning it is questioned; the counter is that it is his original sin.
How Owen knew about the box is explained as Hime, a professor, tracing the diamonds to Case, which the film could have spent 20 seconds on.

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

One-heist 10-episode series

In the discussion (2)

Approx. transcript time · 01:19:44Read transcript

It would make an amazing 10-episode show, like Lost crossed with Inside Man, given its many characters.
One heist across the series, like Heat, is preferred over one heist per episode, with the heist mid-season and a comedown afterward.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Madeleine's office; Winston Wolf as the fixer; Keitel's absence; Albania's borders

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 01:20:19Read transcript

Does Madeline have an office? She is a consultant, an original work-from-home person.
How Owen knew about the Nazi past was already covered.
Would Winston Wolf have done a better job? Unquestionably, getting the box within 20 minutes, though Chris is described as dubious.
Keitel should have been in the movie, possibly in the Defoe role, joked as a Bad Lieutenant sequel.
Can anyone name countries bordering Albania? Answers reach the Adriatic and Ionian seas, Kosovo, Montenegro and the Balkans.

What Piece of Memorabilia Would You Want From This Movie?

Ransone's jacket; Gold Digger ringtone; Jodie Foster's power suit; Denzel's hat

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 01:22:41Read transcript

Ransone's jacket and Peter Hammond's Gold Digger ringtone are named.
Clive Owen's Yankees hat is suggested as a Christmas gift, and the intended recipient refuses to own one.
Jodie Foster's power suit and Denzel's City Hall outfit and hat are named.
The diamond ring would be normal, but its legacy makes it unwanted.

Who Won the Movie?

Spike Lee

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 01:23:29Read transcript

The question is called really hard, with a joke not to say Ransone.
A tangent calls The Doors terrible and jokes about Kyle McLaughlin's scenes.
"It's got to be Spike," with repeated agreement: "I had Spike, I got Spike."
Denzel's mid-2000s run is then called a real sweet spot, without a separate vote.

Podcast choices

Speaker not identified: Spike Lee

More from the conversation

A trailer-style cold open plays Dalton Russell's opening monologue before the episode begins.

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Spike should have directed more genre movies: crime, horror and big-twist films.

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Part of him wishes Spike were Sidney Lumet, making more New York crime movies like Clockers and 25th Hour.

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The film came out 15 years ago this month, feels like it could have come out last week, and is above all a New York movie capturing an eclectic city.

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Apart from the stars, the cast is mostly real New Yorkers with a "fuck you" attitude; the speaker's family is from New York, and the film has three or four ensembles.

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Why Clive Owen did not become a bigger star is debated: after Inside Man and Children of Men in 2006, he ended up in smaller roles such as The Informer.

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Misses with The International and Duplicity reset his career toward the Killer Elite remake; a Bond or Taken-style franchise might have made more sense.

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Denzel is charming and talking trash, free of the haunted baggage of Man on Fire or Deja Vu.

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Denzel's performance is described as a podcast-persona turn with extra mustard against a cast whose top six all have Oscar nominations, with a splash of He Got Game and Training Day.

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The Denzel and Chiwetel Ejiofor detective pairing could have been spun off into a Lethal Weapon-style series.

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Ron Howard backed out to make Cinderella Man and Spike came in late; a Howard version is compared with Ransom but would lack Spike's New York authenticity.

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Is this the best use of Jodie Foster in the 21st century? Yes: an unusual, confident role compared with Sharon Stone, and with her Mauritanian awards role.

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The role may have become rich only once Foster came aboard; Panic Room is the only rival but is more about Fincher.

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Christopher Plummer masters letting a line sit, and the film rewards rewatching for clues, like his "dear God" as the camera cuts away after learning of the robbery.

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A heist-only streaming service is imagined, whose featured "carousel" would include Inside Man, Dog Day Afternoon and Thief, alongside prison and sports channels.

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A Thief episode is planned for later in the month, near its 40th anniversary, and Sean is in.

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Russell Gurwitz (ASR) spent years on the script; the film cost $45 million and grossed $184.4 million, raising the question of why there was no sequel.

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Asked if it was a post-9/11 New York movie, the answer is not really, though it references the Warras Alulia character being unable to get on planes.

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Post-9/11 touches include a never-forget mural and a Bin Laden joke; the film also anticipates the Wall Street collapse and Occupy.

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At the 2006 Oscars The Departed won and Spike was left out of Best Director.

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The film was shut out of the acting and original-screenplay categories, possibly reflecting backlash against Spike.

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Spike puts medicine in with the sugar; a 1991 Playboy interview shows him attacking Hollywood, at a real cost to his awards prospects.

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Spike later played the awards game with BlacKkKlansman against Green Book; he teaches film at NYU and values a competitive Oscar.

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Spike talked Norman Jewison out of directing Malcolm X, but Will Smith took Ali to Michael Mann.

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Spike is compared with Oliver Stone, and Do the Right Thing is called one of the 100 greatest films.

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The Den of Thieves Benihana scene is called the best use of Benihana in a movie.

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Denzel's mid-2000s stretch of genre movies is called a favorite stretch, the last time movie-star genre films were Hollywood's most reliable product.

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The mid-2000s prestige films were weak before superhero movies took over; Inside Man would not make that money now.

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Today it would land on HBO Max; Matthew Libatique and Terence Blanchard are credited, and six Oscar nominees would now need a limited series.

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The episode closes with thanks between the hosts and no spoken producer credit.

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