Caught Up (1998)

Powerful

The first must-see film of the year.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I watched this movie because it was included in a four pack that I bought at Walmart for five dollars. I had been curious about this movie for quite some time and I remember seeing TV spots for it back in early 1998 and wondered what the movie was all about.I get the premise of a guy getting out of jail and wanting to go straight but couldn't because some things wouldn't let him. However, there were so many twists and turns that I was not sure who really was the main antagonist and when you do, it turns out to be a really minor character and while I get the motive and reasons (Sort of) about the true villain, it just doesn't relate to the main plot.The only thing that saved this movie was seeing Cynda Williams naked and the soundtrack was also better than the film. This movie sucked and I really wonder how this made it to theaters. As much as I respect Bokeem Woodbine as an actor, I don't really think he is cut out for lead roles and this movie shows.

This is got to be one of the most confusing urban thrillers I have ever seen. A young man did a five year bid after being involved in a bank robbery thanks to his coke-head buddy. Daryl plans were to open a nightclub and had a major set back that sent him to prison because of the bank robbery. But when he got out he hooks up with a fortune teller that maybe change his life around. Though whenever they were together someone was out to kill him. Daryl played by Bokeem Woodbine had only wanted to get his life together so he can get back into his son's life and presume to open a nightclub. Through all the mayhem in the movie he still achieve his goal. Not a bad ending for a hood movie without the star dying.

A poorly written urban crime drama that would have worked better as a sketch in HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE, CAUGHT UP stars Bokeem Woodbine as an ex-con trying to go straight. Shortly after his release from prison, he meets Trish (Cynda Williams, whose mediocre performance is in sharp contrast to her impressive work in ONE FALSE MOVE), who's, of all things, a psychic being pursued by an evil Rastafarian from whom she stole a huge diamond. Instead of staying the hell away from this apparently high-maintenance love interest (she's beautiful, you see) and trying to reconnect with his former squeeze, he agrees to help her. Every stereotype and cliché is used, as well as howlingly bad dialogue ("Nobody was waiting for me but a dude named destiny") and the perfunctory hip-hop cameos. This film seems to have been made solely to promote its accompanying soundtrack, but with hardly any rap music included in the movie, what exactly was the point of all this?

I liked the movie, despite the critic's abhorrence toward the movie. I can see Bokeem Woodbine's acting potential stretched even further. Yet, Cynda Williams role in the movie may be the culprit for the critic's actions. I didn't like her all that much, and her acting was a bit off. Though, I believe that her purpose in the movie was to fulfill its "Sex-sells" promise. But, basically all she is was just a pretty face. This movie was pretty much all Bokeem Woodbine, as Daryl Allen's journey towards getting his life back together, without getting "Caught Up" of course.