If Eddie Murphy's comic tone turns on a dime, Martin Lawrence can perhaps be described as sauntering around the dime, looking around to see if anyone else has seen it, then picking the dime up, pocketing it, and casually walking off. He lazily indicates his humour, as if it's too much trouble to actually make the joke--and that distance is what makes him funny. At his best, Lawrence describes a kind of comic space and wanders around in it, claiming it for himself the way a dog might mark his territory, suggesting that what you think is funny doesn't matter to him; he just happens to be where the jokes are, and if you aren't laughing, that's your problem.
In Blue Streak, Lawrence plays a jewel thief who plants a stolen diamond in the ventilation duct of a building under construction. When he's released from prison a few years later, he discovers that the building is now a Los Angeles police station. His solution: he impersonates a detective. Of course, everyone believes his disguise. Not only that, using his inside knowledge, he solves several crimes and earns the general admiration of the force. It's a standard fish-out-of-water setup and the plot doesn't take any chances with the formula, but Lawrence wears his role like a loose suit and does a little low-key boogie whenever he can, drawing you into the absurdity with a cock of his head and a roll of his eyes. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
(38 votes)
2.
Lawrence stars as ex-con Miles Logan--a crafty jewel thief forced to hide his stash of diamonds at a construction site when his $20 million heist went awry. Now that he's out of the slammer, he wants the loot back! There's only one problem--the place he hid them is now an L.A. police precinct. When he impersonates a badgeman to get close to his jewels, he winds up in the middle of robberies, drug busts and car chases with his unsuspecting rookie partner (Wilson). Which will happen first--Miles recovering his lost booty or gaining the respect of the police force for action in the line of duty?
(40 votes)
3.
Master jewel thief Miles Logan (Martin Lawrence, Life, Bad Boys) has a big problem. A $20 million problem. Recently released from prison for the botched heist of a huge diamond, he's anxious to retrieve the hot rock which he hid at a construction site two years earlier.
Unfortunately, his hiding place is now at the center of a recently completed high-security police precinct. Posing as a detective, and partnered with straight-laced rookie Carlson (Luke Wilson, Home Fries, Bottle Rocket), Miles utilizes his criminal expertise and inadvertently rises up the ranks, winning the respect of his fellow "boys in blue."
(35 votes)
4.
Martin Lawrence can certainly talk a blue streak (witness his concert film, You So Crazy), but he tones it down to PG-13 for this by-the-book action comedy. Lawrence stars as Logan, a bank robber and jewel thief (nice role model we're supposed to cheer for) who, just before he is arrested, manages to stash the $20 million diamond he has just heisted at a construction site. When he is released from prison two years later, he returns to the scene of the crime only to find that the completed building houses a police station. To get inside and retrieve the precious gem he secures a fake ID and passes himself off as LAPD's newest, and most unorthodox, detective. As he demonstrated on his TV series, Lawrence has a knack for characterization second to Eddie Murphy. But he's no Beverly Hills Cop. Indulgent sequences where Martin has seemingly been given free reign to ad-lib are the film's weakest. Early on, Logan cases the police station outlandishly disguised as a snaggle-toothed, Geri-curled pizza deliveryman. You'd think the last thing his character would want to do is call attention to himself. Lawrence is at his best in the scenes in which, thanks to all those years of breaking and entering, his formerly lawless character proves to be a natural at cracking burglary cases. Logan is paired with the requisite white partner, Carlson (Luke Wilson), a buttoned-up rookie. Departing from the Lethal Weapon, buddy-movie playbook, they are not antagonists; theirs is more a teacher-mentor relationship. "Don't we need a warrant to do that?" Carlson asks Logan at one point. "We don't even need a key," Logan responds, picking a lock. There is little in Blue that is remotely fresh, but Lawrence fans, who watched him play it straight opposite Murphy in Life, will relish the opportunity to see him get down with his bad self. --Donald Liebenson
(35 votes)
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