Bait (Antoine Fuqua, 2000)

After getting arrested for a heist involving shrimp/prawns, Alvin (Jamie Foxx) ends up in a cell with a man who is implicated in a massive bullion heist. He is the focus of an investigation to learn the identity of the robber and the location of the missing bullion.

After he dies, the authorities shift their focus to the only other person in the cell: Alvin.

After implanting a microphone in his back molar, they release Alvin back into society.

While he tries to sort out his life, the authorities wait to see if the mastermind behind the heist will take the...

Antoine Fuqua has had a really interesting career - he has been mostly aligned with the action genre, and has attained a certain cache for directing the Oscar-winning Training Day. Most of his work has attempted to balance R-rated thrills with earnest drama.

For me the earnestness usually comes off a little silly, particularly juxtaposed with how ridiculously violent his movies are - not that I am complaining. Fuqua makes fun action movies, and in the 2010s he seems to have recognised this, particularly with Olympus Has Fallen and The Equalizers. 

Before Training Day, Fuqua made Bait, an action comedy thriller starring Jamie Foxx. Now I have not seen every Fuqua movie, but I do not think he has made any other comedies. As such, Bait is an interesting outlier from the action movies and dramas that make up the rest of Fuqua's filmography.

From the beginning the movie is odd. Tonally it feels very similar to later Fuqua movies - and then we meet Foxx's Alvin, trying to steal prawns.

I get the impression that this movie is intended to work in a similar way to Eddie Murphy's 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop - a familiar thriller/action scenario, with a comedian at the centre of it. Bait never quite manages that balancing act between comedy and the drama of the situation.

While Alvin botches his robbery, the film interrupts with the more sophisticated heist taking place in a federal vault. In contrast to Alvin's introduction, this heist is very dark and serious, with a brutal edge - it ends with the movie's villain coldly executing security men tied up on the floor. 

The tonal shift is jarring, and remains fairly consistent throughout the film.

Part of the issue is that the story is very dark - the premise of a government agency using an unknowing black man as a patsy is very Orwellian. I am sure there is some very in-depth analysis that has been written about this element of the film's story.  The filmmakers try to make the surveillance component part of the comedy but it just comes off as creepy.

It also feels like Foxx is on his own - if you took out his asides, there is not a lot of humour in the story. Foxx is really good when he is just part of the scenes, particularly when Alvin finds out he has a kid. Foxx is a really talented guy, but there is too many moments where it feels like ad-libbing has been wedged into the movie.

Fuqua also shoots it with a lot of harsh blues and greys. For an action comedy the movie's overall tone is too oppressive to allow the humour to breathe. It is hard to have jokes in a movie featuring multiple deaths, a torture scene and a baby in peril.

While this tonal inconsistency throws the movie off where it wants to be, it also makes it weirdly compelling. Watching Foxx trying to work comedic moments in the middle of the film's grim diegesis is fascinating - it is like watching someone wear a suit that is two sizes too big. 

It also filters into the casting: The most comedic actor in the movie is Mike Epps, as Alvin's brother. He and Foxx have a good rapport, but it feels like a completely different movie.

The rest of the casting feels like the kind of heavy duty ensemble you would get in any 90s thriller: David Morse, David Paymer and Kimberly Elise are wildly over-qualified for this movie, and their presence adds to the tonal disconnect. 

Kimberly Elise in particular feels wasted. She is stuck playing a girlfriend role, and is unconscious for most of the third act. Since Alvin has left her in the lurch repeatedly, her disenchantment and impatience make sense - and also undermine Foxx's wordplay. Alvin comes off as callous rather than quick-witted. 

Bait is a movie made for mixed reactions, and that includes the villain: Doug Hutchinson is a real life creep. He is also good in this movie. He underplays the role, with a simmering rage that only bubbles to the surface in his final confrontation with Foxx. If this movie were a straight thriller, he might be more effective and memorable.

Bait is made by talented people. It does not work in the way that it wants to, but that makes it more interesting to watch.