Held Up

During a vacation road trip across the Midwest, Rae is irritated enough but when she finds out that Michael spent $10,000 more than she wanted to on a car she is annoyed because the money could have gone on the house. Rae abandons him at a garage and head to the nearest airport; Michael plans to follow her but when his car is stolen he finds himself stuck in the garage diner. As if dealing with the locals is not hard enough for Michael, a robbery at the garage just makes things more complicated for him.

Although it is apparent exactly what sort of film this was going to be, I was attracted by the presence of Nia Long and Jamie Foxx. The comedy is basic and I had hoped that the playing of the actors would provide enough energy to make up for what I expected to be pretty weak material. True to form the plot is stupid and the humour is very basic and I didn't really ever laugh. Happily the script avoids the usual reverse-racism that seems to be the norm in any comedy with black leads but it doesn't have a great deal going for it in its place.

The film seems to rely totally on the playing of the actors – which is a problem because nobody really does that well. Imagine my disappointment when Nia Long turned out to have very little screen time to speak of. Looking down the barrel of the 2005 Oscars, it is amusing to look back and see Foxx as he used to be – essentially a clowning comedian who had not been asked to actually act. Here that is all he does and he does manage to make his stuff a bit better thanks to his energy and charisma but he is not a miracle worker and he cannot raise the material apart from once or twice. The support cast features a surprising amount of well known faces but none of them really do much with the basic material; still, it was strange to see Corbin, Cullum, Busey, Hagerty, Jackson, Sanchez and a few other "known them when you see them" people.

Overall a pretty darn poor film all told with very basic material throughout. The cast are reasonably recognisable but only Foxx manages to inject energy and even then he only does it well now and again. Very few laughs and very little entertainment value – Jamie Foxx looks to have moved on from this sort of stuff, so should you.

Jamie Foxx has nothing but trouble when his girlfriend (Nia Long) leaves him after a fight in desolate Arizona and then his car gets stolen. Foxx then has more good luck by being held hostage at a convenient store after a botched robbery by ringleader Eduardo Yanez. Country-hick sheriff Barry Corbin becomes the negotiator in this light-hearted "Dog Day Afternoon"-styled fiasco. Admittedly hilarious to an extent, but begins to drag its feet late with plot resolution and a somewhat dramatic twist. Foxx is on the ball when it comes to his comedic timing and execution, but the flick is really beneath his wide range of talents. Adequate little time killer and truly funny---if you are in the right mood. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

I must admit, when I sat down to watch this, I was pleasantly surprised; it was funnier than I had imagined... however, with my expectations being very, very low, it doesn't really mean that the film is anything more than average. A pretty good amount of laughs, but nothing memorable. The ending seemed to be too much of a "happy ending" and was obviously done to open the film up to the mainstream crowd. The plot is decent enough, but it is obviously just written to put the characters in unlikely situations, and is at least a little too over-the-top. The pacing is pretty good, the film isn't really boring for the 90 minutes it lasts(then again, it isn't really *that* hard to make people laugh for an hour and a half). The characters are somewhat well-written, and one or more manage to rise above simply being tired stereotypes. The dialog is often quite humorous, and mostly well-delivered. The acting is decent, for a bunch of no-names; the only well-known actors in the cast are Jake Busey and Jamie Foxx, both of whom prove their worth as comedic actors. The humor is quite good, if a bit dull and predictable. The film has next to no memorable parts to it, though it is somewhat funny. All in all, an average comedy, and worth watching *once* if you can see it for free. I recommend it to fans of typical American comedies. If it's on TV, see it, unless you've seen it before. I have seen it once, and have no intention of seeing it again. 5/10

This movie was okay. It made me laugh out loud more than once. It was however VERY slow moving in parts. I fell asleep watching it on Friday night, but it was decent enough that on Saturday morning I found where I dozed off and continued watching it.

A good point is that the movie manages to be moderately funny without being crude or overly sexual... That's hard to find these days. The biggest negative is that virtually the entire plot occurs in one spot, and you get very little change of scenery throughout the entire movie.

If you're looking for continuous laughs, this may not be the movie for you. But if you can endure the slow parts, the humor will sporadically appear.

Held Up is a movie that will only be liked by those few hard-core Jamie Foxx fans. Yes, it has its funny parts, but they are few and far between. The idea of a man being dumped by his woman, then having his car stolen, and then actually being caught in the middle of a robbery is somewhat ludicrous.

Jamie Foxx is funny in the movie, as he is in all his movies, and with a little help from the sexy Nia Long, who by the way you almost forget is IN this movie, together they make the movie almost bearable. The problem with Jamie Foxx's movies is that they have no feasible plot, and they just stick any comedic situations in to just try and buy a laugh from the viewers.

Now don't get me wrong, I do think that Jamie Foxx is funny, I just think that he needs to choose his scripts better. This movie is a sad attempt at creating a believable storyline. If a movie has `lucked out' and made you laugh a couple of times does it make that movie a good movie? NO! And all the laughs in the world couldn't save this one. Steer clear of this Jamie Foxx flick, and let's just hope that the soon to be released `Bait' will be better. Don't count on it.