Blue Streak (1999) a review by Christian Pyle
When cat burglar Miles Logan (Martin Lawrence) rips off a $17M diamond just before the cops close in, he has to leave the stone behind: duct-taped inside the heating system of a building under construction. A couple years later, Logan gets out of jail and returns to the building to find that it's an LAPD precinct. To get inside, he gets forged credentials and passes himself off as a new transfer to the robbery division.
With his dorky white partner Carlson (Luke Wilson) in tow, Logan hits the streets and discovers that being an experienced thief comes in handy for a detective. Before long, he's promoted to lead detective. Meanwhile, his partners in the diamond heist (Peter Greene and David Chappelle) want their share, but getting the diamond out of the station proves to be harder than Logan thought.
For a Martin Lawrence project, "Blue Streak" is surprisingly tame and mainstream. It's almost a Disney movie. This may be the influence of director Les Mayfield, whose last two films were "Flubber" and "Miracle on 34th Street," or it could be the screenwriting team of Michael Berry and John Blumenthal, whose previous collaboration was another tame cop comedy, "Short Time" with Dabney Coleman. At any rate, it's strange company for a comedian with Lawrence's raunchy rep. (Maybe he has his eyes on the lucrative family market that revived the careers of Robin Williams and Eddie Murphy).
The script milks its premise for every gag it can, but it's Lawrence's high-energy performance that yields the laughs. His best moments have the freshness of improvisation, a welcome contrast to the stale script. Compared to Lawrence, the rest of the cast seems to be moving in slow motion.
Grade: C+
© 2000 Christian L. Pyle
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