Blue Streak


Martin Lawrence is given a lot of leeway in Blue Streak and that makes for an enjoyable mostly-hits-but-a-few-misses film. The comedy takes the path that many recent comedies have, such as Big Daddy and Bowfinger: generate humour by being as outrageous as possible. Like with the aforementioned movies, the humour is relatively clean compared to the likes of There's Something About Mary and Austin Powers.

Miles Logan (Martin Lawrence) has just stolen a huge diamond worth $17 million. He is captured by the police, but manages to hide the diamond in a construction site. A couple of years later, he is released but finds his hiding place has been turned into a police station. After a few failed (and amusing) attempts to recover the diamond, Miles decides to impersonate a police office to conduct a more thorough search for his jewel. But he is teamed up with rookie cop Detective Carlson (Luke Wilson) which throws a wrench in his plans. To make things worse, Miles' skills as a professional criminal serve him good stead as a police officer and his tactics become widely admired by the department ("you don't receive that kind of training at the academy").

Most of the comedy is about the relationship between Miles and his environment, be it his former girlfriend, his cop-buddy partner, or an ex-accomplice who is out to get him. All this makes for some humourous situations. The misses happen whenever Lawrence over acts, and more importantly, when the film makers try to introduce some sort of an emotional bond between the audience and the characters. For example, a moment when Miles and Carlson talk about relationships seems awkward and contrived. Perhaps this is should be taken as humour in and of itself.

This is definitely a successful outing for Lawrence and he does well here. Dave Chapelle is also pretty funny as Miles' side kick. Blue Streak is a funny, humourous film that's definitely worth the matinee fare.


Movie ram-blings || Ram Samudrala || me@ram.org