Inside Man (2006)

Set in New York City, a band of masked robbers dressed in painter coveralls invade a bank and take hostages. Thus begins a cat and mouse game between the leader of the robbers (Clive Owen) and a police detective (Denzel Washington) assigned to negotiate. But the detective suspects that the bank robbers are after more than just money. Directed by Spike Lee (DO THE RIGHT THING), this is a crackerjack of a heist thriller! Intense and stylish, Lee drives the clever screenplay written by Russell Gewirtz to the extreme and we're never less than riveted as the layers are slowly stripped away. Audiences went for it and it remains to this day, Lee's highest grossing movie. While Lee is strictly a director for hire here (the movie was originally supposed to be directed by Ron Howard), he still infuses the film with touches that I suspect weren't in the original screenplay but came from Lee himself. There's a stunning score by Terence Blanchard. With Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kim Director.