One
of the big surprises in film last year had to be Jamie Foxx's turn as a cocky
rookie Quarterback in Oliver Stone's gridiron drama Any Given Sunday. We all know
him for his great work In Living Color, but who'd've thought the guy had this
much dramatic depth. That's what sets him apart from guys like Chris Tucker. Not
that Tucker is bad, in fact, he's quite hilarious, but Foxx seems to add more
humanity to his work, much like Will Smtih. Rather than be a constant smartass,
Foxx seems more eager to play real characters in real situations.
In
Bait, Foxx strives to keep this a realistic action picture, but some of what's
going on here is so ridiculous, he's not always up to the challenge.
Bait
is an action picture very reminiscent of Tony Scott's Enemy of the State (starring
the previously mentioned Will Smith). It's full of high tech toys and features
a character that nearly everyone wants a piece of. The hoopla is over millions
of dollars worth of gold that has been hidden by a thief with a bad heart condition.
The chief villain in Bait is played by Doug Hutchison (The Green Mile). In the
beginning, there's something quite eerie and offputting about his performance,
but then he turns into a stock bad guy as the film progresses. The film gets a
big boost from bad ass David Morse (also from The Green Mile) as a cop who is
so damned intimidating, that you might faint just by looking at him. His connection
to Foxx has a whole Fugitive type rift going. As for Foxx, he still shows a great
amount of potential, but I don't think Bait showcases this guys real talent. There's
just nothing special about this story.
Bait
was directed by Antoine Fuqua (he worked on F. Gary Gray's The Negotiator), and
while the film is never really slow, it does run too long. It's also capped off
by a stupid climax that seemed to be inspired by the outrageous and entertaining
antics of a Jerry Bruckheimer picture. And to top that off, the location of the
missing gold was so ludicrous and so unbelievable that it hurt any redeeming qualities
the film has. I know in an action movie, you check your realism jacket at the
door, but enough is enough already. Like Art of War, Bait wants to be taken a
little bit seriously, but there's just too much over-the-top stuff going on for
it to work.
