Jamie Foxx and Nia Long are far too well established for screwball comedies like Held Up. Coming off the success of Any Given Sunday, the gifted Foxx should be commanding some serious cash, and I'd like to see him in more serious roles. The same goes for Nia Long, whose portrayal of an overachieving news producer desperate for love in The Best Man earned rave reviews. Unfortunately for these two young actors, Held Up takes a big step back as far as resume building is concerned. Regrettably, it makes no pretense about being a legitimate romantic comedy at all; rather it's slapstick in a sort of Cheech and Chong meets Friday in the setting of Deliverance type of story.

The film's plot is downright fickle and it might as well have been written in less than the hour and a half it took to watch the film. Foxx plays Michael Dawson, a successful Chicago businessman on a trip to the Grand Canyon with his beautiful fiancée Rae (Long). When she finds out that he's spent 15 thousand bucks on his newly purchased classic roadster with the money that was meant to be for their new home, she dumps him on the spot and hitches a ride to the airport. So Mike is stuck in the middle of the Grand Canyon at a Sip and Zip gas station with fifty bucks and a blaring 8-track. Before long he gets duped by some kid who ends up stealing the car, while all he wants to do is get to the airport so he can catch Rae before she gets on that plane.

To Foxx's credit, the guy is hilarious, and somehow he hoists this picture on his shoulders to make it halfway bearable, even after some horribly played out jokes about his being mistaken for Puff Daddy and Mike Tyson(???). The film's sequencing is basically a series of pot shots at the ethnic stereotypes of its cast, one after another. Any semblance of plot is invariably just fodder for the next gag.

But the truth is that I did laugh. I'm not saying that it's worth $8.50, or that I'd take a date to see it, but I'll wager it becomes an instant classic on the shelves of college students across the country, right next to movies like Dumb and Dumber, Tommy Boy, and Don't be a Menace to South Central While You're Drinking Your Juice in the Hood. This is one that could only be enjoyed over many beers, late at night with some good company. But the saner among you should stay away.



Held Up: sit your ass down.