Predrag This is a pretty silly movie. The idea of someone holding up a place at gunpoint, taking hostages, and the hostages eventually sympathizing and siding with the robber... well, it's been done before and much better. The talent of Nia Long is wasted in this movie. Most of her screen-time takes place at the very beginning and end of the film.I gave this an extra star simply because Jamie Foxx has some funny moments in this. He's a major talent and really deserves to do better films than this. He's a great actor, both comic and dramatic. And the rest of the cast are all very talented actors, especially Barry Corbin, who plays the sheriff of the town Jamie gets stuck in. Unusual premise upset by too much stupid moments or plot twist. But the film is entertaining enough to made this a pleasant viewing.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Jonathan (mysteryegg) This isn't intended to be a thought-provoking artistic masterpiece, but understandably most reviewers on IMDb are the types who try to look for sophistication in a film and as such, I believe, can't simply enjoy the simply absurd humor in a film such as this. Comparing IMDb reviews for comedies, you'll find The Great Dictator (extremely slow even by Chaplain's standards) at the top and more direct slapstick like The Three Stooges much further down the list. Simply put, most reviewers prefer irony over the kind of things you might joke about with some friends.That said, once I got into this film, I couldn't stop laughing from all the little unlikely absurdities. It doesn't seem to try too hard to set up the comedy like, say, Club Dread. Instead, it is a pure and simple fun movie with a not-too-quirky cast thrown together in a restricted setting. This setup can be movie gold as in The Breakfast Club, but never strives for greatness and instead settles for a loosely thrown together stream of small-town comedy perfect for when you just need to laugh at practically nothing.

mattymatt4ever Even Jamie Foxx himself was embarrassed to be part of this mediocre comic vehicle. But it really isn't as bad as most critics and audiences felt. The problem is Jamie is about the only lifeforce in this badly written comedy. He noticeably wasn't reciting lines straight from the script, b/c his one-liners were the main elements that kept this movie afloat. He holds his own, even when it reaches the peak of comic lameness. And I did laugh a few times, chuckled more though. But you can't help but feel "Held Up" didn't reach up to its potential, in fact it comes far from it. However, it's not a bad film. It's overall pretty harmless and mildly likeable. But there are much better comedies out there. And this is the least funniest of Jamie's work.

Michael DeZubiria Jamie Foxx comes forth with another dumbass comedy, but at least in this one he pretends that he can possibly portray a respectable person. Trapped in a tiny town full of rednecks, Michael (Foxx) tries to recover from his fiancee (Nia Long, whose talent was even more wasted than it was in Big Momma's House) leaving him just after his beloved car was stolen, when he finds himself stuck in the middle of a botched robbery. Yes, this is your stereotypical hick town. They have to have a tremendously fat guy (remember Billy Bob from Varsity Blues?), the police force winds up running around in their boxer shorts, and the sheriff seems to care more about the local sporting events than he does about saving the hostages in the gas station. This movie may not have been so awful had it not been for the fact that the writers were clearly trying to grab for laughs every second of the way, while ignoring the necessary elements (even in a slapstick comedy) of reality and credibility. (spoilers) The robbers become likeable, so of course the film has to have a happy ending. That's fine, but what happened? They got on the bus, rode off into the sunset, and evidently the idiot police force went back to their baseball game, because they ignored the fact that the attempted robbers just drove away. `Oh well, let's just all go home!' Even country police forces aren't that stupid.Held Up is slow paced, it's often boring, and it takes a serious situation and tries to get stupid laughs by making ridiculous efforts to make it all funny. It tries to force a smile on unhappy material, and was therefore doomed from the beginning. Hardcore Jamie Foxx fans may enjoy his cornball antics in this movie, but anyone looking for even the smallest hint of quality in their cinematic entertainment would be best advised to ignore this garbage.