National Security

This movie could have worked if Martin Lawrence wasn't so goofy and over the top. He was just flat out annoying in this movie. Maybe the writing was so poor that this is the only way for him to play the character, or maybe he had too much artistic license and the director was too sheepish to keep him in line. Whatever the case, the movie isn't a total loss, but you know you have a bomb on your hands when your two year old likes this seemingly adult-oriented movie more than his father did.

The movie is basically your run of the mill Police comedies. Where the two main characters are inept but come good and get results ( except in this case they are security guards). It's light hearted and not a bad effort. What does let it down badly are the racist jokes about caucasians. The film probably would not have even been aired if the jokes were reversed and made about other races.

I usually don't like Martin Lawrence and I find his anti-white humor to be quite offensive as well as his string of bad movies. But compared to his other movie of 2003 (that would be the shockingly awful Bad Boys II), National Security is a rather easy-going and light-hearted cop comedy flick with quite a few good laughs. A lot of them, surprisingly, coming from Lawrence himself.

Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn)is a cop who is unfairly thrown in jail for apparently beating a black suspect (Lawrence) who just got kicked out of Police Academy. With his career in tatters he emerges from the slammer with only one job opportunity available; a lowly guard for a lowly security company. Determined to follow up on the big case he was involved with before serving time, he crosses the path of fellow security guard Earl Montgomery (Lawrence again) and the two reignite their old conflict.

The old love/hate buddy thing may be old and the plot may be silly but it's a great excuse for loads of action set-pieces and humor. The potentially dangerous comedy of black vs white never becomes offensive and is handled with such lightness that it never becomes an issue. Both men have their failings and bonuses and are as equal as each other. You really do feel a great partnership between them despite their arguing and fights.

Give National Security a try. It's slick and fast-moving and is a helluva lot better than Bad Boys II. You'll probably be surprised at how funny Martin Lawrence is. I was.

The DVD is in great looking 1.85:1 widescreen with pretty good Dolby 5.1 sound. The scenes where Lawrence uses his automatic pistol really pack a heavy punch in the .1 LFE channel. The usual deleted scenes and commentary are included on the DVD but I was surprised the extended ending wasn't included in the film. It would have been better with it.

I'm always amazed when I look back at how underrated this movie is. 6/10 is understandable, but anything lower is just now fair.

There are mountains of good comedy within the show, mostly prompted by Martin Lawrence's antics.

I always look back at how many jokes people remember from a comedy and if it's more than 2, it usually means it was successful. They may have not been PC, they may not have been witty, but they got the job done.

I've seen a lot more critically acclaimed movies that I struggle to remember at least one funny scene from.

Decent action sequences, and Lawrence/Zahn make a good team. A poor man's Gibson/Glover.

However, EVERY joke being racial got tiresome QUICK. From the preview (and EVERY other Martin movie I've seen) I figured as much. Too bad I wasn't surprised.

Worth the $2 I spent on rental, but if I spent $8 to see it first-run I'd have been sorely disappointed.

6/10