Uno spostato sotto tiro

There are a couple of these movies you catch on cable that manage to sneak some real wit and sympathy into a no-man's-land of stylistic boredom that doesn't even earn the name B-movie ( where this kind of movie is concerned, it's always 1986. )

There are rules to watching a movie like this. You never call them by their real name, because you can't remember their real name, but are to be referred to instead by embarrassed asides to your girlfriend that go entirely ignored while she flips through a Zagat guide, such as "I saw this piece of s--t with Burt Reynolds and Sinbad that was actually kind of funny." Also, you never watch them from beginning to end, but catch them in the middle. Failure to obey this law could result in a meteoric drop in self-esteem and feeling of productivity. That feeling like "the day's being wasted."

The art of a car-wash movie consists of brushing against cliché then pulling back at the last moment. The trick isn't to get you to laugh, but to keep you smiling internally. It's all in the delivery. When Jamie Foxx first encounters a vaguely hostile Little League team and says "Children of the corn," it could very easily come off like a hokey black pop-culture reference to get the Magic Johnson Cineplex crowd roaring. But in this movie, he says it quietly, as if to himself, with a girlishly shocked tinge to his voice. The result is that you find yourself chuckling about the line a half-hour later or after the movie has ended, instead of while it's happening. Most of the jokes here work like that.

And Jamie Foxx is so charming in this film. He looks "street" enough but acts the ninnyhammer as well as Woody Allen, and there's a refreshing lack of explanation about why he's such a nerd. Who else can play the badass, the geek, the samaritan, the tormented artist, the preening genius, and every shade in between, and never coast on the support and shared background of a presumed black audience? There is no pandering in Foxx's performances, no trace of the veiled minstrel show that otherwise plagues most black performers who fall back on those tricks for easy laughs.

A prescription: If you don't believe me that there's a finesse to making even a good bland film, then watch Legally Blonde 2 back-to-back with this one and learn the error of your ways.

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.

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.

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.