Director Spike Lee has always termed each of his films A Spike Lee Joint. The term is apt -- Lee’s movies have always been, even when flawed, audacious and in one’s face. When they succeed, as did Do the Right Thing, they have been powerful and thought-provoking. Lee does that occasionally in Inside Man -- one line says what it took Crash more than two hours to say -- but for most of the film, this maverick director takes a safe detour into the land of genre.

Inside Man is a heist film, a tribute to such films as Dog Day Afternoon, which is even quoted. It also owes a lot to the French heist movies of Jules Dassin (Topkapi) and his imitators. Much of the story is told in flashback as the police interrogate the bank’s occupants after their release: Four masked thieves, dressed as painters, invade a bank at peak hour, taking employees and customers as hostages. The hostages are forced to strip, then dress in garb exactly like the clothes the thieves are wearing. The viewer thinks he’s got it all figured out: The bad guys rob the bank, then escape as customers.

No way. The script has more twists than a pretzel served with a side of red herrings. About 30 minutes into the movie it becomes evident that, as tough as gang leader Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) is, he doesn’t intend to kill anyone. This puzzles Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington), the detective in charge of the case, who sets out to discover the reason. Why are these bank robbers not making away with the money? Why are they taking so long to negotiate?

The cast is impeccable. Washington plays Frazier as a likable guy who’d rather be home with his knockout of a girlfriend than out on the streets risking his life. But as long as he’s on the scene, he wants to do his job well. Part bluff cop, part Columbo-style detective, he’s always looking for that last detail that will make all the pieces fit -- a regular-Joe gumshoe with a steel-trap brain.

Clive Owen, as the lead robber, is cool and suave in a way that seems entirely appropriate to his plan. Jodie Foster is Madeline White, who seems to have power over everyone in New York City. We are never told why White is so cruel and calculated, but we are never in doubt that she has the power she wields. She has apparently been hired by Arthur Case, the Jewish philanthropist who owns the bank. Christopher Plummer plays Case well but can’t convince us that he is as old as the script says he must be.

But make that leap, and a few others, and you’ll be royally entertained. It’s a joy to watch such pros as Washington and Foster in their scenes together. It’s also a joy to watch the intricate cinematography of Matthew Libatique. This is a movie movie -- the camera constantly pans and tracks and zooms. These technical events are never gratuitous, but we are never allowed to forget that we are watching a film. One scene serves as a good example: Russell is in the bank vault talking to a young boy when he becomes alarmed at the violence portrayed on the boy’s handheld video game. The camera starts back from the two, then zooms into the vault, and at the end of the scene pulls back to make a perfect cinematic frame for this very Spike Lee-like scene. There are many Lee regulars on hand, including composer Terence Blanchard, whose lush, jazz-tinged score often plays against the action onscreen as a purposeful irritant.

If you can, see Inside Man in a theater with better-than-average projection equipment and superlative sound. The end credits list a small army of people who worked on the sound, and the results are outstanding. Inside Man has one of the best surround-sound designs I have ever heard. It is vital, at many points, to explaining and propelling the onscreen action.

The above may sound as if I’m describing a four-star movie. I would be were it not for the fact that Inside Man too often meanders. Sometimes we are left with too long a breath while waiting for the next bit to go down. I knock off half a star for that wayward pacing, but it’s still well worth waiting for the next bit of character development or surprise. In taking on a familiar genre and doing it on his own terms, Spike Lee is still audacious. And still well worth watching.

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