CAUGHT UP (1998)
Rating: 2 stars (out of 4.0) ******************************** Key to rating system: 2.0 stars - Debatable 2.5 stars - Some people may like it 3.0 stars - I liked it 3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie 4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out ********************************* A Movie Review by David Sunga
Directed by: Darin Scott
Written by: Darin Scott
Starring: Bokeem Woodbine, Cynda Williams, Basil Wallace, Joseph Lindsey, Clifton Powell
Ingredients: Innocent man just out of prison, tarot cards, beautiful fortuneteller, killer
Synopsis: CAUGHT UP is similar in plot to PALMETTO. In PALMETTO Woody Harrelson plays an unjustly convicted man, freshly out of prison, who falls prey to a seductress who tries to use Woody as a pawn in a lucrative kidnapping scheme. Similarly, CAUGHT UP features an unjustly convicted man named Darryl (Bokeem Woodbine), freshly out of prison, who falls prey to the seductive tarot card reader Vanessa (Cynda Williams). Vanessa wants to use Darryl as a pawn in her diamond-stealing scheme.
The movie takes place in three stages: the whole first half, the beginning of the second half, and the finale. In the first half, Darryl meets Vanessa. A masked person suddenly starts shooting at them, and Vanessa tells Darryl that her jealous ex-boyfriend Ahmad is shooting at them because Vanessa has never returned Ahmad's valuable stolen diamonds. The story builds as if there will be a showdown between Darryl and the psycho Ahmad.
In the second half of CAUGHT UP, Ahmad goes away empty-handed, and the showdown is left unresolved. Vanessa is apparently dead, and Darryl concentrates on solving the location of the missing diamonds. After the diamonds are located, and most of the main characters die in a gun battle, Darryl turns his attention to solving the identity of a new gunman who may be related to Darryl's past. When Darryl solves this last mystery, the movie ends.
Opinion: The pace is good during each of the three stages of the movie, but at the end of each stage, there is little or no transition, so there's dead space where nothing interesting happens and Darryl isn't really motivated to do anything but sit around and act confused. Because of this the action seems to jump and rest, then jump and rest. One source of confusion is when unrelated people from Darryl's past pop into the picture - - for example, his old girlfriend, her estranged husband, and a security guard from a bank make appearances in Darryl's life. Adding to the confusion is when dead people get undead, good guys become bad guys, and so on.
CAUGHT UP is a good vehicle for actor Bokeem Woodbine to strut his stuff, and he shows admirable versatility in portraying anger, fear, and grief. Woodbine's costar Cynda Williams does good backup as a credible seductress and con woman.
The bottom line is that CAUGHT UP is an energetic and watchable B-grade movie that suffers from the same weakness as PALMETTO: it tries to have too much going on at once - - instead of having plot elements and characters blend together in one smooth suspenseful run.
Reviewed by David Sunga February 27, 1998
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