August also marks the DVD release of Spike Lee’s Inside Man (Universal), a taut bank-job thriller from earlier this year that stars longtime Lee cohort Denzel Washington, as well as Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, and Christopher Plummer. While the idea (Owen has planned the perfect bank robbery — or has he?) may seem slightly straight-ahead for someone as notoriously pot-stirring as Lee, Inside Man proves how fascinating the simplest ideas can be when paired with a visionary director and a Murderer’s Row–like assemblage of actors. (Lee proves it again, really, since he did it before with 2002’s The 25th Hour.) I’m not saying Lee could direct a Barney movie and it would be good. Actually, I am, so long as Washington is Barney, Ed Norton plays B.J., and Angela Bassett is cast as Baby Bop, with Terence Blanchard recasting the “I Love You” song as a jazz hymn. — Zac Crain