Two Martin Lawrence Comedies from Sony

Blue Streak (November 19/08)

There's ultimately little doubt that Blue Streak would've fared a whole lot better without Martin Lawrence in the central role, as the actor delivers a hopelessly broad and relentlessly grating performance that proves effective at single-handedly negating the film's few positive attributes. The storyline follows jewel thief Miles Logan (Lawrence) as he emerges from a prison stint determined to retrieve the valuable diamond he hid two years earlier, with complications ensuing as Miles is forced to assume the identity of a detective to retrieve said diamond (which is now sitting inside a police station). It's a can't-lose premise that admittedly does ensure that the movie generally comes off as an affable piece of work, yet the unwarranted emphasis on silliness becomes too much to bear almost immediately - as Lawrence seems to have been given free reign to indulge in his every comedic whim. The resulting spree of mugging and overacting is nothing short of painful, with the collective efforts of Lawrence's talented costars (ie Luke Wilson, Dave Chappelle, and William Forsythe) at picking up the slack falling almost entirely flat. Exacerbating matters is the egregiously action-packed third act - which, naturally, kicks off in an abandoned warehouse - that starts off well enough but grows increasingly tedious as it progresses, and although screenwriters Michael Berry, John Blumenthal, and Stephen Carpenter deserve credit for steering clear of melodrama at the film's close, Blue Streak is simply unable to overcome the scenery-chewing excess of Lawrence's hopelessly incompetent turn.

Martin Lawrence's painful penchant for overacting once again fells what could've been an entertaining comedic actioner, with the actor's obnoxious performance proving a test to the viewer's patience virtually from the word go. And as interminable his work was in Blue Streak, Lawrence actually fares even worse here - as his character's motor-mouth tendencies are exacerbated by an ugly emphasis on racist jokes and asides. The story follows a pair of security guards (Lawrence's Earl Montgomery and Steve Zahn's Hank Rafferty) as they find themselves embroiled in a smuggling operation with far-reaching implications, though the bulk of the proceedings revolves around the mismatched pair's efforts at getting past their indelible hatred for one another. There's little doubt that National Security's opening half hour is as disastrous and interminable as one might've suspected, as director Dennis Dugan eschews overt instances of plot in favor of Lawrence's fast-talking antics - which effectively prevents one from connecting to the material in any substantial way. It's only as screenwriters Jay Scherick and David Ronn begin to wholeheartedly embrace the cliches of the buddy-cop genre that the film slowly-but-surely morphs into a mindlessly enjoyable actioner, with the inclusion of several familiar staples - ie characters run away from an explosion, a car bursts through a wall in slow motion, etc - successfully compensating for Lawrence's less-than-stellar work (to a certain degree, anyway). The expectedly violent climax - which even boasts a fairly effective bad-guy death - ensures that National Security ends on a relatively high note, and it's ultimately clear that the movie would've been far better off with virtually any other actor in the Lawrence role.