David Lee, Universal Studios Jodie Foster, Clive Owen and Denzel Washington star in the Spike Lee film "Inside Man." Click photo for larger image

You can fool some of the police all of the time and all of the audience most of the time, but you can't fool all of the police and audience all of the time and hope to leave them satisfied.

I have channeled Abraham Lincoln, and that's what the good and great president would say of "Inside Man" if he were a good and great film critic. This tense crime drama comes equipped with an excellent cast (Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster), a top-of-the-line director (Spike Lee) and a script that is very cleverly crafted -- too clever by a quarter, if not half.

It goes like this:

Four people in painters' overalls and masks saunter into the lobby of Manhattan Trust, quickly neutralize all security, shock-and-awe 50 customers-cum-hostages, lock down the place and methodically execute the biggest, best-organized bank heist in history. This will be the Perfect Crime, and our robbers -- led by mastermind Clive Owen -- will take their time.

		"Inside Man" Rating: R for language and some violent images. Starring: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer. Director: Spike Lee. 'Inside Man' Website Family Film Guide: 'Inside Man'

Too much time, in the opinion of Denzel Washington, ace hostage-negotiator as well as inspector. Normally, a cop's goal is to establish communications and then stall for time. But these criminals seem to be stalling the cops, asking them riddles and otherwise toying with them. With safes wide open, the crooks' cups runneth over with cash. How long does it take to scoop up? What's going on inside the bank?

Detective Denzel is disturbed. More so when Christopher Plummer, the semi-sinister bank owner, gets personally involved. Even more so when Plummer involves Jodie Foster -- a semi-sinister private "fixer" -- to go inside and get something important out of a secret safe-deposit box.

The hostages, meanwhile, are more freaked out than hostages usually are because they've been forced to strip and don the same coveralls and masks worn by the "perps" (as in perpetrators). If and when the cops make their move and people start running around in panic -- nobody will be able to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

This is Washington's fourth film collaboration with Spike Lee, and he's perfectly competent but ... that's all. Owen is the best thing going for "Inside Man"-- an exquisitely calm, soothing, soft-spoken villain. Plummer is runner-up with his portrayal of a quintessentially smarmy Enron executive type.

Willem Dafoe is wasted in a minor police part. And -- worse -- Foster is wasted in a major one. "I haven't played anybody in a really long time that wears nice clothes and makeup and doesn't get too dirty," she has joked about this character. Indeed. We love our Jodie very much. But she is not so much miscast as miscreated here. She and her role just don't work.

Lee isn't working up to par, either. This is a kind of "Dog Day 21st Century Afternoon" -- mainstream stuff, unlike any of Lee's hard-hitting social commentary films. There's nothing wrong with that per se. But there's something wrong with the vicissitudes of Russell Gewirtz's screenplay, the unraveling of whose plot requires very close scrutiny of very small details.

"Inside Man's" set-up and snappy patter are engaging. But its too-fast-and-glib ending outsmarts the coherence as well as the cops.