Caught Up is bad..really, really bad. It looks like it was done by amateur and with the exception of competent cinematography everything else about it blows.The story: Darryl Allen(Bokeem Woodbine) is having the worst luck ever. He loses his moronic friend to a high speed chase accident. He meets a mysterious woman named Vanessa Dietrich(Cynda Williams) who gets him in the middle of a scandal involving pilfered diamonds from a Jamaican mobster. He is forced to work for a fruity and shady limousine owner named Wild Bill. He befriends one of the guys at this job who ends up being an undercover cop named Frank Lewdon(Clifton Powell)posing as some unfortunate bum named Herbert. On top of all that he keeps getting shot at by somebody(who I will reveal later in this review).You know a movie is in trouble when the cameo appearances by Snoop Dogg and LL Cool J are the best thing about it. You know a movie is in trouble when a sex scene involving Cynda and Bokeem is better than the rest of the movie. The acting is awful. Bokeem Woodbine was great in Jason's Lyric, Panther, Strapped, Gridlock'd etc but he stinks here. Its not his fault. The script is a terrible one that causes for him to profusely overact at every scene. The only scene he fared well in was the scene where he talks to his son over the phone. Bokeem's performance elsewhere in this movie was hammy. Now, I love Clifton Powell but he gives the worst performance of his acting career as the unscrupulous undercover Frank Lewdon. The interrogation scene where he spits back in Daryl Allen's face and slaps him around is laughable to a fault. Having Cynda Williams play both Trish and Vanessa made the movie all the more confusing. As a matter of fact that is the biggest flaw of Caught Up: its confusing as hell from start to finish. The film gets hysterically bad and worse as it progresses. It has plot holes big enough to fit the state of Texas in. Let me give you two examples of the huge holes in this story: Vanessa murders Trish and puts her dead body next to Darryl in a motel. Question: How does she know where Trish stays? Plot hole #2: Darryl is constantly getting shot at and in the end it turns out to be the same cop his friend shot in the groin earlier in the movie. Question: how does this wacky cop know where to find Darryl at? These are the few examples of the many plot holes in Caught Up. A movie so bizarre that it makes you wonder if the director and writer was sloshed while he wrote this tripe. There is a reason why Darin Scott fell off the map after this movie. Caught Up is confusing, jumble mess of a movie that adds to the negative stigma attached to low budget movies. Some low budget movies can be good but this movie is not one of the exceptions. Stick with the soundtrack. Its more satisfying than this stinker.

The whole idea of taking such film noirs as "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and giving them a modern urban twist sounds quite intriguing. Unfortunately, in the case of "Caught Up," the execution is poor. First issue: the casting of Bokeem Woodbine as the lead. Woodbine has been in other urban films like "Menace 2 Society" and "Jason's Lyric," and he wasn't bad in some of those supporting roles. He just isn't cut out for being a leading man. I can tell he wasn't perfectly comfortable with carrying the film on his own two shoulders. The problem with his flat performance is that his face rarely changes expression and he delivers every line like he's constipated. His emotions don't come naturally to him, and as a result his performance is totally strained. The rest of the cast is pretty good. Cynda Williams is beautiful to look at. Jeffrey Combs has an amusing cameo. The script is ludicrous, as it's full of way-too-odd coincidences and implausible plot twists. I can tell that the director Darin Scott was very passionate about this project and very much inspired by those great noirs of the past, but his direction is over-the-top. He explains, in his DVD commentary, that he used a hyper-realistic approach since it's narrated by the main character and people tend to embellish details when telling stories - especially ones as spectacular as this one. His reasons are understandable, but the film still didn't work for me. If there's anything good I have to say, "Caught Up" is worth some good laughs - mind you, you'll be laughing at it, rather than with it.

A very typical set up - ex-con with a kid, wants to make a new start. The main character's complete lack of bravado makes him an amiable enough lead, but it's not enough to save the film from clunky dialogue, and some clunkier acting. However, there are some cinematically nice moments, and it's worth the rental price just to see Jeffrey Combs' hysterical, and very... memorable... cameo.

Director Scott's debut leads us through a well paced maze of mystery. He keeps our interest by injecting unpredictable twists and turns throughout. A brave effort that goes against the formulaic grain of the majority of Hollywood releases.