Inside Man

in

Hello, World!

I think I get where all those hostage themed episodes in tv shows came from.

+spoilers+

Overview: Criminal Dalton Russell and his gang stage a bank heist with over 50 hostages. It is up to Detective Keith Fraizer with the help of police to try and defuse the situation and save them.

This is an interesting take of a heist movie. Instead of the protagonists being the heisters or the cops, it’s actually the hostage negotiators. That’s pretty cool. I really like Keith Frazier. He’s smart, funny, clever, and very serious when doing his job. He gets mad respect here.

When I was watching it, it felt very pretentious. The power play between Russell and White, White and Case, White and Frazier, Frazier and Russell, which like I get it’s necessary given the situation, but it just feels so political and patronizing. Especially with Russell just giving his “I’m so smart with the perfect heist” speech in the beginning. Which I totally called his “because I can” line from that. Smug Asshole.

Which, going from that opening to just bollywood music was such a tonal shift that I literally thought this movie takes place in India.

The bank heist at least felt and look professional. They knew how to use fear and humiliation to establish control of the hostages, dressed the hostages as themselves to provide cover and be anonymous, all without needing to kill anyone. Which really tipped me off that they weren’t going to do it. I mean, the first guy TOTALLY got caught and all Russell did was just pulled him to another room and beat him. Like, guns aren’t for threats they’re for action. Hell even Fraizer caught on to that and that’s why they had to “kill” a “hostage.” I caught that was fake. I didn’t how how they faked it, but I knew it was fake.

Doesn’t take away from the movie though. I need to make that point clear. Just because I semi figured shit out doesn’t negate the good writing and deception that the heisters did.

Also shout out to the hard hat guy who knew it was Albanian, I really liked him.

This movie was also good in showing racial prejudice too. Given everything going on, I appreciate that. Like Vikram Walia, a Sikh who the police literally called him a terrorist. He was also demanding his turban back which I 100% agree with. Give the man back his turban!

Did not like Madeleine White, like At All. Or her thing with Case. And didn’t really care for what was located inside box 392. Or like, I wasn’t interested would be better said. I literally guessed what was in it as a joke, then it became true. I think it was because of the pretentiousness and “power play talk” that killed it for me.

The reveal of the bank heist, with how the robbers managed to pull it off...I didn’t really care for it. Like, not that it wasn’t clever to make a fake wall to hide behind to lay low. It’s just that where the hell did that come from? I never knew/heard about this until then, so it just sort of came up out of nowhere. With Ocean 11/8/whatever they at least let you know who the heisters are and then spring on the final piece of the plan to make you go “Oh! Now I get it!”

Overall: It was good, but I was ok with it. I think that I need more action in my heist movies, or at least see how it was being planned. Otherwise the “cat and mouse” psychological chase thing, I’m not too into the genre. Again, good movie, just not my thing.