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—— How To Make Money Selling Drugs Jun 26
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Held Up (2000)

tomatometer

17

Average Rating: 3.3/10
Reviews Counted: 30
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 25

Lackluster performances and fluff humor can't keep this wreck from sinking.

13

Average Rating: 3/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 7

Lackluster performances and fluff humor can't keep this wreck from sinking.

audience

44

liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 2,588

My Rating

Movie Info

In this fish-out-of-water comedy, Jamie Foxx plays a man named Michael Dawson, though he's confused for both Puff Daddy and Mike Tyson by the citizenry of the podunk southwest town that serves as the setting for Held Up. Road-tripping Michael and Rae (Nia Long) stop in for gas in Michael's new vintage roadster, but she grabs a ride to the airport with a truck full of cowboys after learning he blew more than 10,000 dollars earmarked for buying a home on the automobile. Moments later, Michael

PG-13,

Comedy

Jeff Eastin

Aug 29, 2000

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Cast

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All Critics (35) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (25) | DVD (4)

By the end, even the irrepressible Mr. Foxx seems tired and defeated.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Held Up is a fish-out-of-water comedy that is all wet from the start.

January 1, 2000
Boston Globe
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This slow and talky sitcom may leave its paying customers feeling Held Up.

January 1, 2000
New York Post
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There's enough nice timing and character surprises to make it click at least half of the time.

January 1, 2000
Mr. Showbiz
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There are points in the movie where you think you're ready to laugh, but, like the movie as a whole, they don't amount to much.

January 1, 2000
Newsday
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Maybe a few years from now Held Up won't look like the misstep for Jamie Foxx that it appears to be today. But it probably will.

January 1, 2000
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Scenes begin with an amusing premise and a few laughs, but quickly fizzle as the jokes become increasingly one-note.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Citysearch
Citysearch

Eastin's plot never strays from the predictable nor creates the proper comedic tension and urgency needed for the story to work.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Screen It!
Screen It!

Held Up is a real dud, with few laughs, no characterization, little story, a cluster of stereotypes and clichés and just plain nothing for Foxx to do.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

In this disjointed comedy, Foxx is just a Murphy clone.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
San Diego Union-Tribune

There's an obligatory feel-good ending that's totally unbelievable, and the raunchy first act banter between Foxx and his girlfriend is disconcertingly at odds with the Preston Sturges-style stuff that follows.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

It's hard not to wonder if Foxx owed somebody a favor when he signed on to make a movie this amateurish.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: SPLICEDWire
SPLICEDWire

It's a movie so foul even the folks at the NAACP Image Awards would have to look the other way.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner
San Francisco Examiner

Thanks to an attractive cast and an air of amiability, much of it works.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly
Orlando Weekly

Even if it isn't much of a comedy, at least it's a good-spirited one. The cast gives it their all, but the material is hopeless.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Internet Reviews
Internet Reviews

Which is scarier: Foxx, abandoned in a hick town, caught up in a botched robbery attempt; or you, trapped inside a theater, forced into watching this god-awful movie?

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: E! Online
E! Online

It might be Foxx who's the hostage in Held Up, but by the time the static, feeble movie crawls to a close it's the audience that will feel trapped.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion
One Guy's Opinion

I'd rather be held up than have to sit through this again.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: 3BlackChicks Review
3BlackChicks Review

While an attempt to satirize the conventions of the hostage drama may have seemed an interesting notion, Held Up falls down on almost every count.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Film Journal International
Film Journal International

Audience Reviews for Held Up

Hilarious!
December 16, 2007
iLeo
Leo L

Super Reviewer

This movie was okay. It made me laugh out loud more than once. It was however VERY slow moving in parts. I fell asleep watching it on Friday night, but it was decent enough that on Saturday morning I found where I dozed off and continued watching it.

A good point is that the movie manages to be moderately funny without being crude or overly sexual... That's hard to find these days. The biggest negative is that virtually the entire plot occurs in one spot, and you get very little change of scenery throughout the entire movie.

If you're looking for continuous laughs, this may not be the movie for you. But if you can endure the slow parts, the humor will sporadically appear.
January 3, 2011
brandankurtis
Brandan W
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