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Review: Inside Man: Most Wanted (2019)

Review: Inside Man: Most Wanted (2019)
26 Jan
2021
Not in Hall of Fame

Cast:

Aml Ameen                               Remy Darbonne

Rhea Seehorn                           Dr. Brynn Stewart

Roxanne Mckee                        Ariella Barash

Well it has been a few weeks since my last review, this delay is not caused by not wanting to write about a film or show that we have watched, but primarily because every weekend’s movie has been pretty dismal. First a few weeks ago we started with “Breaking In” starring Gabrielle Union, I usually enjoy all of her films but this movie was so bland and predictable that I could not even get the urge to use sarcasm in a review. Then we tried “Palm Springs” which is currently on Amazon. While not a fan of Andy Samberg’s humour, we gave it a try. Man, were we disappointed, a blatant rip-off of Ground hog day with not enough originality or comedy to make it remotely watchable. (Though we did watch to the end, good thing we had lots of wine) and to round up this trifecta of fecal matter we suffered through “Angel has Fallen” starring Morgan Freeman and Gerard Butler. You would think with these two powerhouses the film would have been great…but Nay Nay my friends, this film goes straight to the garage sale pile without stopping at go and collecting 200 dollars. It was just horrible, even with stars of this calibre. So what do we have left to watch this weekend you ask? Well since we were on a run of horrible films, we tried the sequel Inside Man: Most Wanted (2019). Again, we were disappointed. Not only was this an unwanted sequel to a fantastic film (Inside Man (2006) starring Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster and Clive Owen) but there was nothing and I mean nothing original about this follow-up film. 

First, let me state that if you watched the original Inside Man or even Money Heist, you have the plot. It is identical with no surprises, and I mean no surprises. There were no twists, no turns, just a straight boring line of a plot. (well the original was good, but I watched that a long time ago.) Where can I start with this poor excuse of a film. It opens up in a scene during WW2, where an intrepid bunch of American soldiers find a cache of Nazi Gold and return it to the states. So, Ok, besides historical inaccuracies of an integrated unit fighting in WW2, I will continue watching the film. It can’t be any more farfetched can it? I am only 5 minutes into the film. But let me continue…fast forward 60 years, the story continues in NYC and we are introduced to a fast talking, identity confused hostage negotiator. When I say identity confused, I am talking about the character being portrayed. Remy Darbonne (Ameen), he is a hostage negotiator for the NYPD, however, his character is a cross between Martin Lawrence/Will Smith in “Bad Boys” and Dennis Quaid in “the Big Easy”. He is glib operator, who can’t retain an accent, or mannerisms. He flips back and forth between the various personalities faster than a corvette on a winding road. While he may be amusing at times, it tends to come across as more annoying as the movie progresses.

After this introduction we spy a bunch of ne’er do wells, who don’t look “suspicious” at all casing the US Federal Reserve in NYC, while concurrently we see a professor, Dr. Brynn Stewart (Seehorn) teaching hostage negotiations to a classroom of FBI wannabe’s. What can be more predictable…well, she is actually talking about the instances that were covered in the first Inside Man movie…please lord, let us have some originality in a movie!! Well she gets called into help because the aforementioned crooks have taken over the federal reserve, taken hostages are now looking for some Nazi gold that is in the vault. After following the same steps as the first Man Inside movie, (making the hostages wear the same masks and coveralls as the crooks etc) our FBI negotiator now has to commence negotiations with the crooks for the hostages’ release. Let us not forget that the FBI negotiator is actually an instructor for the FBI, but it seems that she will need help, so re-enter Darbonne (Ameen) who not only helps the FBI, but actually seems to take over and offer advice all the time. Really? The FBI is supposed to be the big league, but our wannabe Marwill Lawsmith (get it…combining Lawrence and smith!) comes off as the real annoying expert. 

So negotiations commence, some people get killed, the plot continues to follow the first Inside Man and Money Heist storyline. Like I said earlier, there is nothing really new here, but if you are going to watch the film I won’t continue with spoilers. Let us just say that the good guys win, not all the bad guys are really bad, there are reasons behind their decisions, and the negotiators save the day. Oh, that’s not all, they will leave enough openings for a potential sequel of this travesty of a film.  

At this point, let us look at some of the main characters/actors in Inside Man: Most Wanted:

Aml Ameen as Remy Darbonne: As I had mentioned previously, Ameen plays Darbonne as a cross between Will Smith, Martin Lawrence (Bad Boys) and Dennis Quaid (Big Easy). While there is some talent shown, there is no consistency. It is almost like he is trying to hard to be glib, cool, suave, and smart at the same time and all attempts are unsuccessful. If he would have stayed with one “homage” if you will to one of the aforementioned stars instead of trying to switch them up all the time it would have probably been better. His chemistry with Dr Stewart (Seehorn) was almost forced and actually hard to believe, even when he was being nice to her. What I found kind of annoying with the plot is that he is the negotiator for the NYPD, and is supposedly an up and comer within the department with his craft, when encountering Dr. Stewart (Seehorn) who is the presumed “FBI Expert” he seems to know more in real life than the FBI negotiator. I think they could have still presented the differences between the styles without making him a know it all, but that is just my personal preference. His scenes negotiating with Barash (Mckee) were played well and in my opinion provided more impact than when Barash (Mckee) and Stewart (Seehorn) played off of each other. Having said all that, I did find his character somewhat enjoyable, especially when he would stick to one character for a length of time. It was when changed them back and forth that I would lose it a bit. Even though Ameen has been around for awhile, this was the first time I had seen him in a film or television show, so I have nothing really to compare this role with from his previous endeavours. 

Rhea Seehorn as Dr. Brynn Stewart: Seehorn portrayed Dr. Stewart as a stoic know it all, with a perpetual stick up her butt. I found it hard to get invested into the character and for someone who was supposed to be the “Expert” in hostage negotiation and even instructing classes on the previous films case, you would think she would have been more on the ball. When in the field she came across more of a novice than an expert, was this so that it would be more believable to have the local negotiator helping her out? If so, then why would she be the expert, it would have been better if she was a new graduate of the negotiating classes and this was her first one. That way when Remy (Ameen) would show up the assistance would have been warranted. I found her character development lacking, as well as her chemistry with her co-stars. Even though she has been in several shows that I have watched in the past (i.e. Whitney and Veep), I really don’t remember her character standing out. Overall, I found her performance lacking in this film.

Roxanne Mckeeas Ariella Barash: I actually liked McKee the most in the film. She was assertive and confident throughout. She also displayed the inner turmoil on why she was doing this heist in a somewhat believable fashion. However, I did find her French accent to be a bit cartoonish, but the German one passable. Having watched the first film, I knew where she was going to go with almost every scene, though this is not the fault of the actor, but the director/writer. It was still not a bad performance overall. This is another instance where even though she has been in several shows that I have watched, I cannot really remember her character. I may have to watch them again (specifically Game of Thrones) to be able to really compare this performance with that of her previous work. I think that she has the potential for some good roles and time will tell to see what she will do next. 

What did I like about the film? I think if I had not seen the first movie, I might have actually enjoyed this one a bit more. As I had previously mentioned, once Ameen settled into a “character” be it Lawrence or Smith type, he was not that bad. Though he could have gotten rid of the Dennis Quaid, “Big Easy” accent/style. It actually took away a bit from the character. The storyline, while not original was ok, and flowed relatively well. Mckee did an admirable job as the bank heist leader, and her chemistry with the co-stars was evident throughout.

What didn’t I like? Well there was clear editing and direction errors throughout the film. First, the accents that were thrown around like rice at a wedding. Please, stick with one and roll with it. Also, there were some actually very funny errors that were consistent throughout. I had mentioned previously about the integrated army unit in WW2, in WW2 there were no racially integrated units within the US military, I know that Hollywood is always trying to be inclusive, but sometimes for something that is supposed to represent part of history it actually takes away from the story. In the case of this film, there were many more opportunities for inclusion without trying to rewrite historical facts…even it is supposed to be a fictional film. Other examples of inaccuracies or goofs are; you will see one of these big burly henchmen grab a bar of gold and carry it like it was 200lbs. The actor is huge, and has biceps bigger than my leg, yet this bar makes him strain. Yet a few scenes later, you see the guy grab two or three and a close up of the ingot itself saying it is 12.4 kg (or 27.4lbs). Seriously if you have pipes like these guys, there should have been no strain carrying this bar of gold. Additionally, after the same gold bar is melted into long golden rods, these same individuals throw them around like they are straws. C’mon guys, pick a lane here, are they heavy or light? Speaking of melting the gold, there was so much gold on site, they would have been melting for weeks, not just 8 hours. That is not addressing the excess heat and fumes that would have been generated during the melting process. I do not believe that bank/reserve basements have ventilation that could handle that load. 

I also found that some of the ‘tie-ins’ to the original film actually took away from the story itself. They should have left them out, and make it a stand alone film, and it might have made it better. Also, where did these guys get all the equipment to make the hole in the vault. I don’t remember seeing a scene on where it was brought in. Speaking of equipment, the water jet used to drill through the wall. To make this work it would have taken copious amounts of water, yet where did they hook it up? Did they bring in tanks of water? I don’t think a bank vault will have a faucet located within the room…just another mistake that the director/writer did not think to offer an explanation. These were just some of the errors/goofs in the film that I found hard to take and actually detracted from the storyline…however, if you give it a watch, I am sure you will find even more!

So now for the big question, were we entertained? Not really, we watched to the end primarily to see if they would follow the original film...(which they did) and if there was actually going to be a twist or turn. The acting while not great (as I am sure you have surmised already) was ok enough that I did not turn off the blu-ray player, but not good enough that I did not pick up my I-pad and do some surfing while watching the show. Would I recommend this film? Only if you have nothing else to watch, or if you had not seen the original, or Money Heist, then you might get more out of it. 

Our rating 2.5/10

If you want to see a good heist film check out the following recommendations;

The Italian Job (1969)

Heist (2001)

Logan Lucky (2017)

The Usual Suspects (1995)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Till next time!

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