10. "Inside Man" (2006)

Spike Lee's take on the heist film benefits from the director's stripped-down style and his favorite star's low-key take on that old genre standby -- the hostage negotiator who's got to outwit a bad guy holed up inside a bank. Only Denzel's detective is smart enough to figure out that Clive Owen's master criminal and his cronies aren't necessarily after the vault's millions, and spends most of the movie engaged in a cat-and-mouse game trying to gauge what's really going on. Washington deftly maneuvers through the material, and even injects some levity during a Sikh suspect's complaint about post-9/11 racial profiling. "I bet you can still get a cab, though," he replies without missing a beat, and even the offended party lets out a chuckle.

(Image: Everett Collection)