He's a cop that's not - belive that! read the tagline of Blue Streak, a comedy starring Martin Lawrence. And belive me, you'll hear 'belive that!' so many times throughout the film while having to put up with Lawrence's overaction that you'll almost wish you never came. But at times, the comedy is good (and the action) and it's almost worth it.
Martin Lawrence plays Miles Logan, a jewel thief who hides a diamond during a heist in an abandoned building. Two years later, when he is released from jail, he finds his abandoned building to be the newest location for the LAPD. Since he is able to remember where he hid the diamond, he tries to gain admittance to the building, but when he finds out that the only people who can go where his diamond is are people wearing badges or people wearing handcuffs, he opts for the former. Hooking up with an old friend, he gets a fake police record, badge, and ID card and poses as a detective to get back his $17 million diamond.
But sinister forces abound, including many of his old friends and hook-ups along with the general population that he now has to police. Miles is faced with police situation after situation and deals with them all in his own unique way. Martin Lawrence is probably the king of overacting (possibly tied with Jim Carrey). Lo and behold, he retains the crown in Blue Streak where every situation is drawn out and he is left in the middle to overact and overreact to anything and everything. His overacting is what really got on my nerves about 15 minutes into this movie, but the friends I went with said that that added to the comedy. I agree that it adds to the comedy, but it also detracts from the overall movie.
Sure Blue Streak is predictable and loaded with overacting and bad acting, but in the end, what you're left with is a comedy/action flick which really does entertain. It's worth the price of a matinee admission and some popcorn. Just sit back and ignore all of the detractions and enjoy Martin Lawrence the overacting comedian.
BLUE STREAK
Review by Shivesh Kumar
Blue Streak is supposed to be one of
those "action-comedies" that seems to be popping up more in Hollywood
nowadays. Starring funnyman Martin Lawrence (Life, Nothing to Lose)
and the usual cast of larger-than-life characters that are expected to be found
in this kind of flick, Streak takes us on the unlikely but entertaining path
of jewel thief Miles Logan (Lawrence), who, during a botched getaway after
a huge mega-million dollar diamond heist, is caught between a rock and a hard
place: the cops, who are swarming all over the joint and Deacon (Peter Greene),
who has betrayed the criminal team to try and take the diamond for
himself. The next few minutes see Logan slide down grappling cable to the
next building, which is still in the midst of construction. There, he
tapes the diamond to the wall of the ventilation shaft, before sliding onto the
third floor, only to be immediately arrested.
After this little whirlwind, we're
fast-forwarded to two years later, and Logan's return visit to the building
containing his valuable loot after his release from prison. Lawrence
overacts his character's apparent and completely understandable shock over
finding out that the building is now the local LAPD precinct. From here,
the story goes all over the place, from Logan's inexplicable disguise as a
horribly disgusting, break dancing buck-toothed pizza delivery man to his
charade as a new detective from West Covina.
Playing straight man to Lawrence's antics is
naive Luke Wilson (Home Fries), who's style contrasts sharply with
Logan's street-wise, hip personality and methods. The plot follows about a
thousand unlikely but amusing twists, to Logan's the nabbing of a crazed felon
running through the bathrooms of the precinct, his immediate appointment to the
head of the burglary division, and his accidental staging of a complex sting
operation against a notorious drug dealer, which involves the FBI. Whew.
David Chappelle (200 Cigarettes) plays
Logan's homey and partner in crime who becomes reduced to robbing liquor stores
after Logan goes to jail. The director does not use Chappelle's burgeoning
talents to any extent in this film, instead relegating him to several sight gags
and annoying dialogues.
All in all, Blue Streak is a type of
movie that will appeal to those who like to see the standard Hollywood template
of black-against-white (Nothing to Lose) or funny-man versus straight-man
(Rush Hour). Its action is frequently just an excuse to keep one
segment of the audience entertained, without considering the overall package in
terms of plot, character interaction, and most importantly, comedy.
Without all those elements in sync, Streak is a bad knock-off of 48
Hours, starring Martin Lawrence.
