Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat

It is not uncommon for a celebrity to be faced with the proverbial "wake-up call". And, should they survive this event, they come to a deeper understanding and appreciation of their particular good fortune. However, in the case of comedian's, they are rarely as funny after their epiphany as they were prior to it. Such is the case with Martin Lawrence. Frankly, I pay little attention to celebrities as I have much better things to do with my life than to spend it monitoring others'. So, I was unaware of the majority of what Lawrence had gone through prior to this film. It was interesting but, unfortunately, all too common. I was left with the larger impression that this guy's stand-up act just wasn't very funny. Save the big life messages for a book, just be funny on stage. If you want to see a funny Martin Lawrence, go rent some of the old Def Jams for which he hosted.

Don't rent Runteldat.

I had heard positive things about this concert film and had hear that even those unimpressed with Lawrence's films had to give him props. Although I have found his films to be puerile and unfunny more often than not I somehow find him personally to be pretty amusing in his delivery. So in a way I was quite looking forward to this film. Things didn't look that good early on as the film opens with a look back over the recent media controversy surrounding Lawrence and is essentially him putting two fingers up at all those who have, in his eyes, unfairly criticised and picked on him. It is embarrassing to watch as he seems to be telling us that the attention given him (as a global celebrity) is somehow unjustified.

I hoped this would just be the build-up under the credits and that the show would be a solid piece of stand up. Unfortunately he continues early on with him announcing he would tell his own story and so on but at least he soon got over it. But when his next topic was 9/11 I wished he had stayed where he was because in reality this section was nothing more than Lawrence racially attacking Muslims for all looking like Bin Laden and even a joke about how he had beaten up an Indian man behind stage just in case. He segues from this into the importance of beating your child (and indeed waiting for it outside the vagina so you can start kicking it then), material about sex after pregnancy (including a piece about "titties" that makes Benny Hill look like Oscar Wilde), bad drunks and the humour of domestic violence. Suffice to say that not of it is that funny and is about as basic as you can imagine.

By covering all this type of material Lawrence shows himself to be very much a base comedian in that his material appeals to an audience raised on sitcoms, swearing and who nod their heads and laugh uncontrollably at the most basic stereotypes and race clichés. His racist jibs are squarely aimed at every other culture apart from African-American, whereas with that group he seems to enjoy the failings of his culture. With people like Chris Rock and such you get it that they are critical of such things but with Lawrence he celebrates it. His material is predominately crude and tasteless, whether it is sexist, racist or just so broad that at times you sense he is close to losing some sections of the audience. Contrasting this with moments of trite insincerity just makes it even worse. There is no denying that he has good presence and runs the stage well but it is disappointing that he seems happy with such basic material.

Overall then a real disappointment of a show. The material is as basic as could be and rarely has any touch of invention or genuine wit across it. His audience mostly lap it up and I suppose those that have loved his recent films will love it – however the majority of us should not be taking their enjoyment as a recommendation. Crude and basic stuff throughout and only worth a look for those die-hard fans of Martin's brand of comedy.

"Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat" caught me by surprise because I don't usually find myself enjoying this genre. "Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat" is funny, engaging, insightful and crude; "Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat" contains all of these and I can finally say I have seen Martin Lawrence at his best. If you are a person who enjoys great comedy, Martin Lawrence or just curious about the comedian; "Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat" is for you.

"Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat" opened my eyes to this type of genre and made me want to rent other comedies like this. I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I did.

This is, without of the doubt, one of the funniest films that Martin Lawrence has ever done! I am a big fan of stand-up comedy as it is anyway, so I was very impressed. He rocked the mic on "Def Comedy Jam", so who wouldn't be surprised? In addition, I thought the opening to the movie was clever. Although the movie is mainly comedy, it was nice how the filmed began with a short documentary rather than that skit at the opening credits of "Eddie Murphy: Raw". However, I liked that stand-up show as well, so "Runteldat" definitely is up there with "Raw", "The Original Kings of Comedy", and both of John Leguizamo's shows. In conclusion, I could care less what the media had to say about Martin Lawrence. He's still "all about the Benjamins", so let him do his thing!

Martin Lawrence's familiar brand of slde-splitting comedy is most evident in "Runteldat". His comic timing and delivery is excellent as is his material. I have never laughed harder, and I look forward to other filmed live performances that he may make.