Tony Gilroy’s forces as a writer are fully exposed in “Andor”, which ends his glorious two-season race on a beautiful bittersweet note. It is soft to be, be careful, because there may never be another “Andor”, because its presence within the franchise “Star Wars” has established an abnormal standard of narration like no other. Gilroy seems to understand the nuances of a world at the mercy of corrupt imperial leaders, in which the average civilian must choose to get up, take a stand and fight against tyranny. There are no flashes of lasers or vague prophecies; Only a weak hope that the right to freedom is a contagious (and spontaneous) idea. The show is also one of the rare cases in which a prequel improves its successor, because “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is now more heartbreaking and expanded thanks to “Andor”.
In addition to writing the scripts for the first three films “Bourne” (and directing the fourth entry), Gilroy has already joined the writers Andrew and Adam Scheinman with Pen “Bait”, the Action Comedy 2000 with Jamie Foxx. This did not do at all at the box office at all, increasing only $ 15.5 million compared to a production budget of $ 51 million. Needless to say, this massive financial failure cost Warner Bros. The writers, of which Gilroy, cannot however be held entirely responsible for the result, because the director Antoine Fuqua (who later made caprifying and kinetic films like “Day Day”) admitted that he was not particularly passionate about the project. This is also understandable, because all the work of realization cannot be a passionate project and all the scripts do not stick landing despite the efforts of the people involved in his crafts.
While the criticisms challenged the aesthetics and the formula structure of the film without inspiration of the film, they were unanimously positive on one aspect: Jamie Foxx. Indeed, the actor’s turn as a protagonist of the film, Alvin Sanders, is undoubtedly impressive, because he prevents Fuqua’s film from being inaccessible. At this stage, Foxx had not yet established himself to settle as a gifted dramatic artist, although he continued to impress everyone even more with “Ali” (who was published in 2001), followed by his work electrifying in “Collateral” by Michael Mann three years after that.
The bait is far from perfect, but it has really fun moments
It would be a bad service for Gilroy and Fuqua to call atrocious “bait”, because the film has several strengths that have a decent experience. Here, a small thief / Hustler Alvin is arrested after stolen shrimp and ends up sharing a cell with John Delano Jaster (Robert Pastorelli), a large thief who doubled his dangerous partner, Bristol (Doug Hutchinson). While questioned by the Treasury agent Edgar (the brilliant David Morse), Jaster apparently dies of heart failure, but not before transmitting a cryptic final message to his cell companion Alvin. You may be able to guess what will happen next: the police use Alvin as bait To catch the murderous Bristol, which stops at nothing before recovering the money it was deceived. But Bristol is a clever man, ready to leap on Alvin before being able to make movements.
One of the blatant problems with “Bait” is his visual style, because Fuqua uses his signature style, mixing granularity with a clip -style flashiness. The result is an excess exercise, because Fuqua is unable to find a balance between the dramatic and comic elements of history, which is why they end up feeling so disparate despite their thematic link. We are supposed to find humor in Alvin’s shenanigans because of his clumsy nature, but we also feel a feeling of dramatic immediacy with Bristol, because his presence evokes a threat and unpredictability. While the respective actors nail these oddities of an individual character, there is little cohesion between these moods, which means that most “bait” feel tonnes.
There are also ridiculous moments for a good reason, but I would say that these little silly diversions make “bait” which is worth your time. Humor flows better when underestimated thanks to Foxx’s impeccable comic timing, which is used to constantly raise the most subscribed character moments. In addition, we soon learn that Alvin’s behavior is only a front to protect himself from the exploited, which makes Foxx’s performance even more superimposed than it seems. This is the point where we realize that the pawn in question has never really been the bait to start, making it “bait” into a smooth little thriller. These exciting moments of history are rare, but they are sincerely cultivated enough to justify a chance of “bait”.
