BLUE STREAK RATING: 7 / 10 --> Good movie
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Only three weeks before the release of his film, actor Martin Lawrence keeled over while taking a jog draped in a moose-fur sweater in no less than 100 degree weather. It was an extremely unfortunate and life-threatening situation, which left him in a coma for about three days. He's currently recovering. I'll admit that I had this incident on my mind when I went in to see this movie, but five minutes in, Martin Lawrence, the talented comedian, had me forget all of that, and let me to enjoy this predictable, yet funny, movie.
PLOT: A lifetime criminal gets caught during a diamond heist but leaves the $17 million stolen diamond hidden in a vent of a building under construction. As soon as he gets out of jail, he returns to the scene of the crime, only to find that the building has been turned into a police station. The only way into the edifice is to "pretend" to be a police officer, which is exactly what our con man sets out to do.
CRITIQUE: If you like Martin Lawrence, the stand-up comedian, you will most likely enjoy this movie packed with Lawrence-based humor, as long as you can dismiss its generic screenplay which is predictable and spotted with forgivable holes. I enjoy Lawrence when he's "on", and baby let me tell you, this film lets him go all out! The premise of the movie allows you to be "in on the joke" from the start, giving you more reason to laugh when Lawrence goes off on his crazy shite. I laughed out loud during several scenes of Martin's schtick, but also noticed a couple of lulls here and there, and a horribly annoying rap-electro-dance soundtrack. Drag that damn cow out to pasture already! Having said that, Mrs. JoBlo loved the soundtrack, so it might just be me. :) Idiot white-boy sidekick Luke Wilson also did a decent job of acting like a bumbling fool, as did the rest of the paper thin characters spread around Martin's ball of contagious humor.
Don't get me wrong here, folks, I don't go into these films expecting awesome screenplays and deep characters anyway, so I won't bother rating this film on that unrelated scale. You go to see this kind of movie because you want to laugh. Did I laugh? Yes, I laughed a-plenty and it eased away, at least for that sweet moment, some of the pain that continually drips through my useless existence from the minute I step out of my grungy bed in the mornings, to the moment I drop the proverbial kleenex in the toilet bowl at nights (Just kidding! Just wanted to make sure that people are actually reading my reviews all the way through :). Gotcha! Anyway, back to my critique. Martin Lawrence is a funny man, and if you don't think he's funny, do not go see this movie, because besides him, there ain't much else going on. Consider it a BEVERLY HILLS COP Junior, cloned within 48 HOURS, but without the over-abundancy of swear words. I also enjoyed it from a child's perspective, since Lawrence's character was essentially getting away with everything that I wanted to be as a kid...and kickin' some mighty ass in the meantime, I must say! All in all, a funny, safe Martin Lawrence vehicle based on a cute premise.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: Actor Martin Lawrence is born in...Frankfurt, Germany!? That's apparently so. He won the 1987 "Star Search" stand up comic award, and married, and subsequently divorced, Patricia Southall, a former Miss Virginia. They had one daughter together. Martin's life has been plagued with many unorthodox incidents over the past few years. In 1996, he was found waddling aimlessly through Ventura Blvd., while spouting nothings in the air. He was taken to a psychiatric hospital. In 1997, he was twice arrested. The first time was for carrying a loaded gun in a suitcase at the Burbank Airport, and the second incident occurred outside of a Hollywood nightclub, after police were called in by a man who claimed that Lawrence had punched him. Actor Luke Wilson once dated smile-a-lot actress Drew Barrymore for a few years. Then, they broke up. He also played the character of Billy in the fake horror movie within a movie, STAB, in SCREAM 2 (7/10). His brother is Owen Wilson, the goofy dude from THE HAUNTING (4/10), who also happened to co-write RUSHMORE (8/10) and BOTTLE ROCKET. David Chappelle's role was originally scripted as a cameo, but the chemistry between him and Lawrence was so dynamic, that his role was consequently expanded. Not that anyone should be too surprised to find this out, but apparently Martin Lawrence improvised a few of his scenes in this film, despite three screenwriters having written the script. You go, boyee! Some of you may remember actor/bad guy in this film Peter Greene from his role as Zed from PULP FICTION (7.5/10). The cop dude who was f**king the Ving Rhames character in the derriere, when all hell broke loose. In real life, Mr. Greene apparently had a bad heroin addiction over the past few years, which presumably kept him off many major roles on the big screen. Let's hope that he's cleaned up his act, and keeps up the good, bad guy work. His birth name is Peter Green. Screenwriter Steve Carpenter has written and directed a few films in his day as well. He wrote and directed three horror flicks in the 80s called THE POWER (1980), THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (1981) and THE KINDRED (1986). Director Les Mayfield is the man responsible for other comedies such as FLUBBER and ENCINO MAN, his directorial debut.
Review Date: September 9, 1999
Director: Les Mayfield
Writers: Michael Berry, John Blumenthal and Steve Carpenter
Producers: Toby Jaffe and Neal H. Moritz
Actors: Martin Lawrence as Miles Logan
Luke Wilson as Carlson
Dave Chappelle as Tulley
Peter Greene as Deacon
Genre: Comedy
Year of Release: 1999
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(c) 1999 Berge Garabedian
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