Man On A Ledge Review

I saw Man On A Ledge on Monday January 30, 2012. I was impressed with the movie. What I enjoyed about this movie was the ledge scenario honestly has absolutely nothing to do with the movie plot. It is used as a diversion for what the real plot is. Nick Cassidy played perfectly by Sam Worthington had been framed a couple of years prior to the events of the film. He was a cop who was arrested for stealing a dimaond from a man named David Englander played by Ed Harris (not a favorite actor of mine but the parts he usually plays actually work out very well), which he never stole. He is attending the funeral of his father while his brother and his brother's girlfriend watch on. Nick tries to get away as the police chase him. He had a decision to make: It was either go to prison for 25 years for a crime he never committed, or what the plot of the movie actually will entail which I will get into in a few sentences. He gets away and brings us to present day where he is on the ledge of a tall building telling people: "I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!!!" He requests the presence of Lydia Mercer (played very well by Elizabeth Banks) to help him in the situation. She has a past as well with trying to talk down jumpers, some of which ended tragically. When she arrives, she believes that something is up right away. The thing is her intuitions were right. Across the street at Englander's Diamond Exchange, his brother Joey and girlfriend Angie are attempting to get the diamond. Nick is using this whole ledge scenario to fool the public so he can actually get the diamond so that Englander won't have the satisfaction of getting off for setting him up. However, there are also people within his own police department that have assisted Englander and Nick has to figure out a way to deal with them as well. It's a race to get the diamond with Joey and Angie being helped via mics between them and Nick and Lydia dealing with the crooked cops across the street. The scenarios with Nick are all taking place at a hotel, and a mysterious bell hop played by the awesome William Sadler who played The Grim Reaper in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey keeps assisting Nick. Joey and Angie have some funny romantic exchanges. Englander knows something is up too though so he tries to transport the diamond as well. The bell hop who is known as Frank take a bag that Englander has with the diamond it and tells him he'll take it off his hands. Meanwhile, he hands it to Nick and leads to a nice twist at the end. Good action, decent plot, and a good cast were factors in making this a fun movie. It reminded me a little bit of a personal favorite movie of mine and fellow movie blog buddy Jacqui Cohen: Inside Man. It was a smart movie and I really like how the ledge was such a minimal part to the overall basis of the movie. I'll give it a 3/5, but it is entertaining and worth a watch.