Bait (2000)

The Long Review:

Bait stars Jamie Foxx as Alvin Sanders, a notorious, naughty criminal who calls himself the King of Seafood because he has a taste for nabbing frozen ocean creatures. When he goes to jail for stealing prawns (prawns, not shrimps!), he ends up in the same prison cell as John Jaster (Robert Pastorelli), the guy half-responsible for stealing $42 million in gold bricks from the U.S. Treasury who ran off with all the gold, leaving his partner, Bristol (Doug Hutchison) behind. As can be expected, Bristol, the mastermind of the whole heist, is very, very pissed off. And he wants his gold. Now, in the 8 hours that Alvin and Jaster spend together in the prison cell, Jaster gives Alvin major clues as to where the gold bricks are. Oh, did we mention that Jaster has a pretty bad heart condition? Yeah, well, he does. So when he's interrogated by Clenteen (David Morse), the head of security of the U.S. Treasury, he drops dead from anxiety. But not before confessing that there was only one other guy who committed the crime with him. So Clenteen has to find this mystery man with no leads to go by. And what does he come up with? Knowing that Alvin had some precious bonding moments with Jasper, he figures Alvin must know a little something. So through a lowdown dirty scheme, he implants the poor dude with a miniature tracking device that would let the feds follow his every word and move and would lure Bristol. And then they tell Alvin that he's free to go because of some mix-up in his case. And so the adventure begins. Whew!

Pretty complicated plot, huh? Complex as it is, though, you can still follow. The events don't get so convoluted that you just kinda sit there and go Duh? Quoi? But the plot does have some holes. There are some unanswered questions and inconsistencies. Sometimes, you'll find yourself thinking, How did he know that? Or How did that happen? There's something fishy going on! 'Guess you just have to forget all logic to fall for some scenes. Otherwise, you're just going to be so frustrated at what you see. And Jamie Foxx's character is some kind of Superman in some scenes. The way he pulls off stunts and escapes major injury, even death, puzzled us. He might as well have worn tights and a cape! Oh, well.

We should mention that Jamie Foxx does a pretty good job of handling his role. On the one hand, he's the stereotypical, goofy lowlife who got his kicks (and livelihood) from pulling off petty crimes. On the other hand, he's a smart, sensitive guy determined to be a responsible father to the baby son he's just met. And in both angles, he's one funny man. And his acting looks so natural. You can't help but like and admire the guy.

The rest of the cast gives strong performances, too. David Morse is convincing as a stiff high-security agent who finds absolutely no humour in anything. Talk about a party poopoer. But weirdly enough, his lack of sense of humour adds quite a bit of comedy to the film. And Doug Hutchison makes for a great troubled genius/madman. He doesn't overact and he exudes just the right amount of psychoness. Those glasses he wears makes him look like a comic book character, though. Um. Yeah.

Given that this movie is two hours long, our attention didn't stray too much. The pace was steady enough, although you do get your share of slow parts. You'll for sure appreciate the really funny scenes, though, particularly the ones where the feds get um, an intimate look at Alvin's private life. And Bait has enough of the good stuff to hold its own: action, comedy, and a bit of kinky sex. Overall, it's a pretty good catch.

Ebert's satisfaction:

ebert says	moviegurus say
It's funny and clever, and it grows on you, especially with the tension between Jamie Foxx's trash-talking thief and David Morse's monomaniacal federal agent.	Yeah, we liked the interaction between these two characters. Serious vs. hilarious. It works!
It's one of those movies where you start out thinking you've seen it all before, and the longer it runs, the less you've seen before.	Yup, you go in there thinking you're seeing an altered version of Enemy of the State. But as you keep on watching, you happily realize that it's even better. Bonus!
It doesn't go for obvious laughs, like a Martin Lawrence movie might have, but uses Foxx's wisecracking ad-lib style to create Alvin as a character who gets more complicated the more time we spend with him.	Puh-lease! How can you even compare Jamie Foxx to Martin Lawrence?? If we were Jamie Foxx, we'd be gravely insulted.
A lot of the best scenes involve federal agents in a monitoring post, eavesdropping on Alvin's life, his conversations, his problems with his girlfriend (Kimberly Elise) and the trouble his brother (Mike Epps) gets him in.	Hehehe. We agree. Just you wait till you see exactly how the feds like eavesdropping on Alvin. We bet that for those few minutes, they wished they were in a criminal's shoes!