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.

Jamie Foxx comes forth with another dumbass comedy, but at least in this one he pretends that he can possibly portray a respectable person. Trapped in a tiny town full of rednecks, Michael (Foxx) tries to recover from his fiancee (Nia Long, whose talent was even more wasted than it was in Big Momma's House) leaving him just after his beloved car was stolen, when he finds himself stuck in the middle of a botched robbery.

Yes, this is your stereotypical hick town. They have to have a tremendously fat guy (remember Billy Bob from Varsity Blues?),the police force winds up running around in their boxer shorts, and the sheriff seems to care more about the local sporting events than he does about saving the hostages in the gas station.

This movie may not have been so awful had it not been for the fact that the writers were clearly trying to grab for laughs every second of the way, while ignoring the necessary elements (even in a slapstick comedy) of reality and credibility. (spoilers) The robbers become likeable, so of course the film has to have a happy ending. That's fine, but what happened? They got on the bus, rode off into the sunset, and evidently the idiot police force went back to their baseball game, because they ignored the fact that the attempted robbers just drove away. `Oh well, let's just all go home!' Even country police forces aren't that stupid.

Held Up is slow paced, it's often boring, and it takes a serious situation and tries to get stupid laughs by making ridiculous efforts to make it all funny. It tries to force a smile on unhappy material, and was therefore doomed from the beginning. Hardcore Jamie Foxx fans may enjoy his cornball antics in this movie, but anyone looking for even the smallest hint of quality in their cinematic entertainment would be best advised to ignore this garbage.

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