(Review originally written at 27 March 2004)
The most funny thing about this movie is the concept. A man (Samuel L. Jackson) is because of his skin color mistaken for a burglar. When the police surrounds the house and realize the mistake they made they come up with the idea of letting a real criminal (Nicolas Cage) take the black man hostage and hold him for ransom to avoid the bad publicity. Sounds like a good concept for a comedy, unfortunately it sounds better than it is.
Nicolas Cage is not the greatest comical talent and Samuel L. Jackson once again plays the role that he played so many times before, the black man who becomes the victim of white society. He plays the same role as he did in "Die Hard: With a Vengeance" and to be frank I'm getting tired of him playing this kind of roles. I really love Samuel L. Jackson but he should stop playing this kind of roles. Luckily Dabney Coleman and Brad Dourif still provide some good comical moments.
For a comedy it certainly lacks some funny moments, there are some but simply not enough to make a good comedy. A nice effort but the result is a not completely successful and at times empty comedy.
An OK comedy to kill some time with but not a must see.
6/10
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