This was an excellent way to spend a Sunday afternoon. There was a really engaging and effective balance between the thrills of the complicated heist, along with well-drawn an interesting characters which meant that the ‘how’ of the situation as it unfolded was only one part of the plot.
The characteristic Spike Lee social commentary and awareness was masterfully folded into the mix of the film so that it became a natural part of the story, from casual racism of the police force, like treating the first (Sikh) hostage sent out as a potential ‘Arab’ terror suspect. And the instigator of the whole plot edifice had a super little scene with a child hostage from Brooklyn (very smart and sassy) about the grossly violent video game he was playing and his concerns with it – to the extent that he said he would speak to his father about it . And although we did not actually see this, we believe d that he would.
The structure of the film was also very effective, with a range of characters involved questioned by the police after the siege had been resolved. This was done with a distorted colored filter being effectively used to separate such episodes from the rest of the film. The creator of the heist both started and concluded the film, addressing the audience direct to camera. An effective device.