To call “Inside Man” the most commercial film Spike Lee has ever made is like saying fine French Champagne is a worthy substitute for week-old Apple Juice. The answer is obvious, and with actors the caliber of Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe and Chiwetel Ejiofor giving smooth, if uncomplicated, performances it is clear from the first frame this is one heist thriller that’s a superstar slumming festival of the highest degree.

It may not sound like it, but that’s a compliment. Thankfully, “Inside Man” is a perfectly entertaining (if overlong) slum festival, one sure to send audiences home with a fully belly and a happy heart both made content in only the ways a good movie can accomplish.

Lee has claimed “Dog Day Afternoon” as one of his favorite films and its influence is felt here. A bank robbery, a standoff, one primary location, hostages, jumpy cops and calculated robbers looking, at least on the surface, to just get away. But that is where the similarities end. Newcomer Russell Gewirtz’s script is a con job, a cryptic puzzle where the major protagonist behind the robbery urges audiences to, “pay strict attention,” right in the very first scene.

And attention must be paid because the writer’s plot may overlap, revolve in ever-decreasing circles and throw red herrings out by the handfuls but it rarely, if ever, repeats itself. To figure this puppy out you need to be sharp and follow the clues (which are happily all there if you’re observant) and although it isn’t quite as smart as it thinks it is the end result is still a jazzy froth of suspense, twists and turns that sure as heck kept me entertained.

Four people, including the suave and ultra smart Dalton Russell (Owen), dressed in matching painter outfits walk into a downtown New York bank and start a robbery. Locking the place down, they take hostages, set traps and proceed to set the rules of negotiation for the growing police force stationed outside. At the front of this force are veteran NYPD detectives Frazier (Washington) and Mitchell (Ejiofor), good cops under the shadow of a suspicion that ultimately has nothing to do with either of them. This hostage situation is a plum gig, a chance for Frazier to clear his name and to bring some bad men to certain justice.

Problem is Frazier smells something wrong. Not only has the bank’s controlling entrepreneur Arthur Case (Plummer) been noising around where he doesn’t belong, a mysterious woman named Madeline White (Foster) has been given the mayor’s (Peter Kybart) seal of approval to get anything she wants. Worse, the detective is stating to think this isn’t a robbery at all, his masked opponent far too smart and calculated to have boxed himself into a corner with no escape. Frazier and Mitchell work to put pieces together, doing their best to solve Russell’s riddle before the highly trained police officers led by Captain Darius (Dafoe) get itchy trigger fingers and storm the bank guns ablaze.

I’m not going to reveal what’s really going on, Gewritz does that himself a bit too quickly if you ask me, but let’s just say it revolves around a sixty-plus year secret that’s forced one man to sell his soul while another bets everything to steal any chance that person has to ever buy it back. “Inside Man” is a smart, breathless and gloriously satisfying crime and caper drama, laced with humor and bristling with smarts. It is an old-fashioned tell-me-a-good-story-and-let-me-be-entertained thrill ride, and while no one would ever confuse Lee’s latest with one of his best it is still an effort worthy of exuberant praise.

Heck, maybe even worthy of a standing ovation. After a career of talking about social ills and conditions, it is refreshing to see the director having as good a time making a movie as he probably has making Michael Jordan commercials for Nike. More so, genre conventions have forced Lee to really focus. There are few self-indulgent flourishes, nearly no sensationalistic tricks with the camera, no jarring shifts in tone to speak of, nothing happening on the director’s front to dilute the forward momentum of Gewritz’s crackerjack screenplay. The director gives his actors space to build their characters, lets them evolve naturally and from within, seldom missing an opportunity to allow his cast to express themselves.

But I wasn’t kidding when I said everyone involved is slumming. It may all look and sound fantastic (Matthew Libatique’s cinematography is particularly outstanding), but even with this flair “Inside Man” is still a pulsating guitar riff we’ve all heard a time or two before. Worse, at around 130 minutes the whole thing is far too long, some moments ponderous to the point of being maudlin. It doesn’t help that the filmmakers throw in a cadre of interrogation scenes that, while fun in and of themselves, rob the rest of the picture of both tension and suspense. They reveal too much, erasing any doubt a person might have regarding the hostages’ survival and the intentions of the bank robbers.

No matter, “Inside Man” is still an awful lot of fun. No one will win an Oscar for their acting but that doesn’t mean there is a single bad performance. Washington, in particular, seems to be having a good old time, almost as if he took his 30’s-era P.I. character Easy Rawlins and transposed him right into the heart of a modern NYPD police force. He and Ejiofor make a fantastic team, and pardon me if I wouldn’t just love to see these guys bring their Mutt and Jeff personas back for another adventure.

What’s the payoff? A good time, and really isn’t that more than enough? While I seriously doubt this has a shelf life longer than a couple of months that still doesn’t make it any less of a springtime treat. Better, it is an almost guaranteed smash, something Lee’s resume has never had, and it is as pleasing a genre entertainment I’ve seen come out of a major studio since Wes Craven took to the B-movie skies and unleashed “Red Eye” last summer.

There is a sad irony, of course, and I can’t help but feel it is absurd that the director of “Do the Right Thing,” “He Got Game,” “Malcolm X” and “Clockers” had to make something as generic as “Inside Man” to finally score a genuine hit. A bitter pill, but a pill I’m not about to hold against him. As movies go, this Spike Lee joint is an entertainment steal no matter what the price.

Film Rating: êêê  (out of 4)