When Andrew Sterling, a successful writer buys a vacation home on a resort in New England, locals mistake him for a burglar. After surrounding his home with armed men, Chief Tolliver realises his mistake and to avoid the bad publicity offers a thief in his jail, Amos Odell a deal. Amos is to pretend to take Andrew prisoner and hold him for ransom but let him go and escape. The pair realise that the Chief's problems are all gone if the two of them both die in a gun battle......So the whole film is supposed to be a topical satire on how suburbanites are supposed to typecast people of different ethnicities. Does it work? No. Did I find it offensive? Yes.The writer of this poison, has basically depicted everyone who live on the island apart from Andrew, as moronic Neanderthals from the dark ages, who are fascinated with status and fame.Cage just plays an idiot, plain and simple, and Jackson is basically a calmer version of Zeus from Die Hard 3, who feels oppressed, and this is supposed to be funny?Its not funny, I couldn't think of anybody who wouldn't be offended by this, because the subject matter is dealt with like a soiled nappy.Its no wonder it never got a theatrical release here in the UK.Its a big thing to say this, but its Cages most awful film, and I've seen Deadfall and Stolen..

A noted black author (Samuel L. Jackson), mistaken for a prowler in his own house, is pinned down by the local Keystone Kops, and police chief Dabney Coleman tries to cover the goof by giving white trash petty criminal Nicholas Cage a loaded shotgun so he can pretend to hold Jackson hostage for a few minutes. Why Coleman didn't think to begin this unlikely charade at the moment of arrest is anyone's guess, but Cage (of course) plays it for real, with entirely predictable consequences. This is one of those strictly formula comedies built around an escalating series of misunderstandings, the first of which is the assumption that the average intelligence of its target audience is somewhere around the kindergarten level. Bright spots are provided by Brad Dourif in one of his reliable psycho supporting roles, and by Brad Balaban as a touchy-feely criminal psychologist (doing a perfect imitation of Fred Rogers crossed with Leo Buscaglia). Otherwise this witless farce offers further proof that you can't trust any movie advertised on the side of a bus: it's not even smart enough to qualify as dumb fun.

This film is possibly one of the funniest films ever. A seriously great flick which will make you laugh more than ones. Great acting, writing and directing and the plot is so brilliant that you want believe it. Samuel L. Jackson (one of the best actors alive plays Andrew Sterling a extremely rich and successful African American which has just bought a summer house on a "all white" island. The previous owners of the summer house has not told anybody that it was for sail and when two of the neighbors see him inside they naturally assume he is a criminal. He's nice car outside also make them believe he's holding the previous owners hostage and they call the police. The police assumes the same and over a little misunderstanding they start firing at him. When the realize how wrong they where the police chief (which is running for Major) makes a plan to justify everything and fool everyone so they make a deal with the life criminal Amos (played by Nicolas Cage) to stage a hostage situation against letting him get out of jail. But then the pres finds out about the story and the chief has to go back on his deal, unfortunately for him they both finds out the truth.

When famous Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sterling (Samuel L. Jackson) moves into a new home on a New England resort island, he is mistaken by his new neighbors Phil (Michael Lerner) and Judy Gillman (Margaret Colin) as a thief because they see him through his window with his stereo equipment in his hands! They call the police. The Chief of Police Cecil Talliver (Dabney Coleman) and his band of bungling deputies show-up and then the fun begins. When Talliver realizes that he and his deputies have shot at a famous man, he must engineer a cover-up by using a con-artist currently incarcerated in his jail, Amos Odell (Nicolas Cage). Dabney Colman is at his best playing this sort of incompetent pompous ass character! Samuel Jackson and Nicolas Cage are believable in their roles. The whole movie is a comedy of errors with several scenes that are laugh-out-loud funny. Entertaining!