Even before the opening credits are over, it's apparent just how dated this limp action comedy really is. With its quickfire humour (largely unfunny), knockabout stunts (hardly edge-of-seat-stuff) and the chemistry-free pairing of Robbins and Lawrence, it looks for all the world like a glossy star vehicle which might have been penned for Eddie Murphy in the mid 80s. A decade on, however, it comes across as a very pale imitation indeed.
Ad exec Nick Beam (Robbins) has an enviable lifestyle, thanks to his high¬flying job and adoring wife Anne (Preston). Until, that is, he discovers her getting horizontal with his boss (Michael McKean), legs it across the city in shock, and is promptly carjacked by petty thief T (Lawrence). Rather than surrender, though, Beam's anger forces him to turn the tables on his attacker, kidnapping him and roping him into an ingenious revenge scheme.
Cue a barrage of road movie antics; holding up gas stations, defying security systems, and dodging a couple of crooks who happen to bear a certain resemblance to the pair (setting up a potential gag which is never used) — all of which would have been far funnier if the humour was not so Americanised. While the loquacious crims and none-too-bright-hicks may cause shrieks of hysteria in the Midwest, it's hard to imagine anyone overseas understanding the bulk of the one-liners.
Oedekerk, he of Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, does Lawrence as few favours as he did Jim Carrey, the actor's sub-Murphy schtick proving so irritating that it's almost a relief when he is eventually duffed up. Robbins emerges with some dignity intact, playing the nice-but-dim card for the umpteenth time and providing enough bright spots to stop the audience from nodding off.