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Bait (2000)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:4
Rotten:17
Average Rating:3.4/10
Consensus: Even though Jamie Foxx shines in Bait, the movie suffers from music video roots and a formulaic script that strains credibility.
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Box Office: $5,485,591
Synopsis: Antoine Fuqua's follow-up to 1998's THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS is a tense action-thriller with a healthy dose of comedy. Jamie Foxx stars as Alvin Sanders, a petty thief who ends up serving jail time... Antoine Fuqua's follow-up to 1998's THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS is a tense action-thriller with a healthy dose of comedy. Jamie Foxx stars as Alvin Sanders, a petty thief who ends up serving jail time after he is caught stealing prawns from a seafood warehouse. His cellmate, John Jaster (Robert Pastorelli), is one of two men who pulled off a miraculous heist at the Federal Gold Reserve in New York City. Just before Jaster dies of a heart attack, he gives Alvin vague instructions to share with his wife, which may or may not reveal the location of the stolen gold. U.S. Treasury Department chief investigator Edgar Clenteen (David Morse) is convinced that Alvin is the only link to Jaster's invisible partner, Bristol (Doug Hutchison). In order to locate Bristol, Clenteen implants a state-of-the-art tracking device into Alvin's jaw and releases him from prison without telling him the real reason why. When Alvin reunites with his girlfriend, Lisa (Kimberly Elise), he finds that she now has a son to which he is the father. He soon learns the genuine cause for his release, thrusting him into a dangerous world of mystery and murder. In order to save his wife and child, Alvin must cooperate with the evil Bristol and help him locate the gold. [More]
Starring: Jamie Foxx, David Morse, Megan Dodds, Jeffrey Donovan
Starring: Jamie Foxx, David Morse, Megan Dodds, Jeffrey Donovan, Mike Epps, Kimberly Elise, Doug Hutchison, David Paymer, Robert Pastorelli, Nestor Serrano, Kirk Acevedo, Jamie Kennedy, Tia Texada
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Screenwriter: Tony Gilroy, Adam Scheinman, Andrew Scheinman
Producer: Sean Ryerson
Composer: Mark Mancina
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Reviews for Bait
Blending comedy and action is a formula that works when both elements are strong, as in, say, Beverly Hills Cop or 48 Hours. In Bait, this isn't the case.
Bait makes a fatal mistake, one this kind of movie should never make unless it actually is The Matrix or Terminator 2: Judgment Day: It's long.
It's just respectable trash, and a dress rehearsal for better things ahead.
Despite its genre trappings, Bait is an entertaining and occasionally clever picture with a crackling peformance by Jamie Foxx.
Ultimately, it's Foxx's insistence on filling any dead air with wisecracks that spoils Bait.
Thanks to Antoine Fuqua's ... feverish and self-indulgent MTV-inspired direction, with its desperate overreliance on close-ups, you just can't tell what's going on.
Fuqua draws from so many disparate genres to energize the film that fusion gives way to confusion.
If you want a conflicted movie that doesn't know what it is -- or just wish to kill a few hours -- this is for you. Otherwise, keep fishing and cut Bait.
Two things pretty much save the movie. The last 40 minutes are well-plotted and paced. And Foxx is enormously likable.
If the movies that make 'best lists' are filet mignon, the culinary comparison here probably is bait.
Director Antoine Fuqua ... is left buried just as surely as those very unlikely gold bars.
He's hilarious, but through the jokes, you get the sense Foxx knows he deserves better.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
| 14% 14% | The Ugly Truth |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 86% 86% | A Christmas Tale |
| 60% 60% | Paper Heart |
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