"Down & Dirty"
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What You Need To Know:
A violent, dirty, sexually immoral urban thriller, CAUGHT UP at times expertly mines the conventions of black action melodrama and film noir only to succumb to awkward, poorly-acted comical moments. Bokeem Woodbine plays a two-time loser named Daryl who, after serving time for selling drugs and bank robbery, comes under the spell of a beautiful fortune teller named Vanessa, played by Cynda Williams. With Vanessa’s not-so-innocent assistance, Daryl gets involved with a shady chauffeur service, murder, gangsters and a search for stolen diamonds.
Director Darin Scott has a flair for shooting film noir. Cynda Williams is an excellent femme fatale, and Bokeem Woodbine knows how to play the archetypal innocent fool when he is not acting like he is in a skit from IN LIVING COLOR. Scott doesn’t help matters when he throws in some stereotypes out of the 1970s, like a young black arms dealer with a huge Afro. A high level of sexuality, violence, crude language, and occultism, make CAUGHT UP one of the more unacceptable movies of the season. The movie presents a mostly pagan worldview of sexually immoral, violent lifestyles with some redemptive moments concerning Daryl’s relationship with his son and his efforts to stay out of trouble so he can build his own business
Content:
(PaPa, B, OO, LLL, VVV, SSS, D, A, M). Mostly pagan worldview of sexually immoral, violent lifestyles with some moral & redemptive moments & occult elements with Tarot Cards; 145 obscenities, 11 profanities, 23 vulgarities, & 29 uses of the “N” word; extreme graphic violence including bank shoot-out and car chase that ends bloodily plus scenes of men & woman firing guns, men punching men, one non-graphic torture scene with drops of acid on man’s head, & shots of half-nude female corpse with bloody stab wound & Tarot Card of Judgment placed on body; scenes of depicted fornication with graphic upper female & upper male nudity plus shots of upper female nudity in asexual context; scenes of pot smoking & references to illegal drugs; drinking of alcohol & one scene of drunkenness; and, miscellaneous immorality such as bank-robbing, seeking revenge, failing to stop men from torturing another man.
More Detail:
CAUGHT UP is a movie that doesn’t quite know what kind of movie it wants to be. A violent, dirty, sexually immoral urban thriller, the movie at times expertly mines the conventions of black action melodrama and traditional film noir only to succumb to awkward, poorly-acted comical moments that seem like something out of the early 1990s TV series IN LIVING COLOR, a SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE clone.
In the movie, Bokeem Woodbine plays a two-time loser named Daryl who, after serving time for selling drugs, unwittingly gets involved in his friend Trip’s bank holdup. Daryl dreams of going straight by opening up his own nightclub, but Trip promises to invest $10,000 in the club without telling Daryl he intends to get the money by robbing a bank. Trip gets killed in the chase following the holdup, and Daryl serves another five years in prison. Regrettably, he leaves behind his girlfriend, Trish, and their newborn son.
Getting out of prison the second time, Daryl finds himself alone and out of work. His mother is dead, and his son is with Trish, who has gotten married. Things begin to look up, however, when Daryl meets a beautiful fortune-teller named Vanessa, played by Cynda Williams, who asks her weird, slimy friend Billy, played by Joseph Lindsey, to give Daryl a chauffeur job. Somebody is firing guns in Vanessa’s direction, however (or are they shooting at Daryl?), and Billy’s chauffeur service has many shady clients who need drivers willing to keep their mouths’ shut. The plot thickens when a group of Jamaican characters show up looking for some diamonds Vanessa helped them steal. Daryl ends up on the run from both the cops and the Jamaicans when Vanessa ends up murdered one morning in his bed, following a night of passion.
Director Darin Scott has a flair for shooting film noir. Cynda Williams is an excellent femme fatale as Vanessa, and Bokeem Woodbine knows how to play the archetypal innocent fool when he is not acting like he is in a skit from IN LIVING COLOR. Scott doesn’t help matters when he throws in some stereotypes out of the 1970s, like a young black arms dealer with a huge Afro, that make CAUGHT UP seem too much like a poorly executed comic spoof. That, coupled with the movie’s high level of sexuality, violence, crude language, and occultism, make CAUGHT UP one of the more unacceptable movies of the season. The movie presents a mostly pagan worldview of sexually immoral, violent lifestyles with some moral and morally redemptive moments concerning Daryl’s relationship with his son and his efforts to stay out of trouble so he can build his own successful business.
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