Bait

Miami Herald Charles Savage

A competent but not extraordinary action-comedy.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It's over the top, an exercise in action comedy that cuts loose from logic and enjoys itself.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A genial and watchable film.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's another slick-and-quick muscle car of a movie, racing along for a couple of hours, taking you nowhere as fast as it can.

Variety Dennis Harvey

A B movie in A-grade clothing.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

Though the film overall is as disposable as a hot dog, it is just as enjoyable.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

A perfectly competent, if undistinguished, action film that smoothes over all the most interesting bumps in the drama.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

It's long. Long movies almost always mean the audience member has time to think, and in this context that's not a good thing.

San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego

Too much of nothing and far from the potentially star-making material that Foxx deserves.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The action is difficult to follow.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The comically tinged action is as lively as it is brainless, and it revels in violence a bit less eagerly than many thrillers of its ilk.

USA Today Mike Clark

Has less substance and depth than its title.

Film.com Sean Means

He's hilarious, but through the jokes, you get the sense Foxx knows he deserves better.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

It may be a dismal comedy thriller, but Antoine Fuqua's Bait has one piece of bait that's definitely appealing: Jamie Foxx.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Bait ends up seeming pretty wormy.

TNT RoughCut Andy Klein

It more or less makes sense and it's not dull -- more than can be said for many similar attempts.

Film.com Robert Horton

The plot is convoluted.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It's just respectable trash, and a dress rehearsal for better things ahead.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Foxx is a charmer, and he makes Alvin's unlikely evolution from relentless hustler to reasonably solid citizen believable, and even rather touching.

Mr. Showbiz Larry Terenzi

Even Foxx's lively comedy is lost in the noise.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

One of those thriller-comedy combos that never get the balance quite right.

Entertainment Weekly Steve Daly

A tired action thriller determined to play the race card every which way for every which kind of viewer, seems hopelessly behind the curve.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Bait equals bad.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

This comedy-thriller that has no particular motive for changing tones.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

So convoluted and half-assed it's tempting to dismiss it as unfinished; it feels like six different movies cut together by a blind editor.

Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour

But what little humor there is in the movie becomes subservient to the grisly violence, gratuitous cruelty and ugly car chases.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Ought to be called "Hook, Line and Stinker."

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Why Mr. Foxx, who was so impressive in "Any Given Sunday," chose to make a movie so boring and idiotic that it barely meets minimal standards of lowest- common-denominator entertainment.