Now, hold on. The title is not a reference to any kind of illegal substance, at least not directly. Any movie buff or film conissuer is famaliar with a particular writer/director calls his movies "joints". When the movie usually says "A Steven Speilberg Film" it will say "A Spike Lee Joint".

This weekend Cheryl (w/Sprout), Stephanie, and I went to a sneak preview of Spike Lee's Inside Man. This is an excellent movie. I am a sucker for hiest/robbery movies. I guess I really like "a thinking man's movie" or maybe I wish I could be as smart as the clever thieves. Anyway, I have never really wanted to see any Spike Lee "joint", however as soon as I heard about Inside Man, it was at the top of my list. It has a great cast starring Denzel Washington and Clive Owen as the intelligence-warring detective and master thief respectively. Plus, veteran actors Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, and Willem Dafoe in commanding supporting roles.

Inside Man was very well done. Through out the movie, there are "flash-forwards" to some quick scenes with some of the characters post-robbery, which was a very nice touch I thought. I thought all the actors, even the ones in bit parts were very good. I liked Spike Lee's adding the diversity of New York City to the story. Its nothing vital to the script, but again a very nice bonus. It adds to the realism.

In summary, Inside Man is a fantastic movie and its nice to see Spike Lee direct someone else's script as opposed to his own vision and story. Check it out this weekend at your local cinema.