National Security - Sei in buone mani

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.

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

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.

Earl Montgomery is a cop wannabe who can't get past the academy into the force. Hank Rafferty is a real cop who is emotionally on edge having seen the murder of his partner by a gang raiding a warehouse. When the two get involved in a minor roadside traffic stop, Earl claims Hank beat him and gets him thrown off the force. Hank takes up a job as a security guard and sets out to find the gang that killed his partner. He finds them in a warehouse protected by Earl (also now a security guard) and the two reluctantly team up to go after the gang. However when they steal the gang's merchandise they find themselves hunted by both the gang and the cops.

Although I like to think of myself as having reasonably good taste – I do find Martin Lawrence funny. I don't know why but many of his films just make me laugh even though I feel like I shouldn't ! However this film is the recent exception to that. I saw the trailer and thought that it might be worth a stab – wrong! The plot is a shambles of coincidence and plot holes – where there is a doubt they simply have a big gun fight. There is no real tension to the plot as it is so very loose – even at the end you'll struggle to know much about the plot outside of the two central characters.

The action scenes make the A-Team look realistic and tense – they are simply tonnes of bullets flying everywhere before the bad guys are dispatched with one shot! This sucks any excitement or tension out of them and only leaves you with lots of noise that just feels pointless in the extreme. In that way they reflect the wider plot I guess. Sadly though, the poor action and poor plot is by no means the worst part of this film.

Easily the worst part of this film is the fact that 99% of the `jokes' are based on race – in particular Martin Lawrence's comments which are either a) laments on the victimisation of his race or b) reverse-racism remarks that border on the offensive and would certainly never be allowed to pass if the lines had been given to his white co-star. The victimisation things are simply not funny and merely make the lead look like he has an enormous chip on his shoulder about his colour – maybe 2 or 3 remarks along these lines would have worked but to have nearly every line based on this is simply overkill and it quickly gets tiresome. Other remarks I simply found offensive – I'm sorry, I know this is meant to be a comedy but I found them bigoted in the extreme. What makes it worse is the fact that the film plays Earl as a hero and never shows him to change his way or his opinion – hence it validates what he says. For example to have a character state that he is against interracial relationships between white men and black women (and never take it back) is simply offensive – as I (a white man) sat with my wife of Nigerian-descent I felt very uncomfortable that anyone would allow such insulting dialogue to be part of a film. Even if you think I am making a big deal out of nothing – just imagine this whole film if even half of Earl's dialogue had been said by Hank – there would simply have been an outcry!

To make the offensive material worse – it is rarely funny. I don't know what Lawrence is up to. This summer he has the chance to kick start his big league career again in Bad Boys 2 where he'll get help from Smith and Union – but this is a huge leap back – pandering to an audience that may find it funny because they too have a chip on their shoulder about race. I usually find his mugging and saying `yo ass' or `and sh*t' after every sentence funny but here the chip on his character should simply obliterates everything else. Zahn is poor – I have not seen him in a strong role but this must be a step backwards even by his standards – he suffers at the hands of racist remarks and comes off badly – even his relationship with Denise is played for laughs as the writers expected the audience to find it a joke that Hank could land with a `fine sista' like that, it even goes so far as to have Denise admire Earl's penis!! In fairness Robinne Lee (Denise) is gorgeous and it is good to see her in something again after only seeing her in Hav Plenty. God knows why Eric Roberts is in it – he has nothing to do and his wig just looked stupid, likewise Bill Duke is only there for the dirty looks.

Overall I enjoy Lawrence comedies even though many are silly. Here the jokes are nearly all based on race or reverse-racism and after the first 3 time they get increasingly unfunny and tired. At best this film is lame and barely amusing, at worst it is simply bigoted (regardless of what colour the character is – bigotry is bigotry) and will be offensive to anyone who tries to get past the issues of race and racism in their daily lives.

L.A. cops Charlie and Hank respond to what they believe is a false alarm. It is not, but they went to check out the situation just in case. Charlie is killed.

Earl wants to be an L.A. cop but his outrageous and reckless behavior gets him kicked out of the academy. Never mind that Earl can do no wrong because any criticism from whites is the result of racism against black people.

Hank is bitter about losing his partner, so it doesn't help matters that he is the one who catches Earl trying to break into his own car. And Earl is allergic to bees so when a bee complicates the situation and Hank tries to swat the bee, and Earl is mostly behind the car so the person videotaping the scene can't really tell what's going on ...

It's Rodney King all over again. And the joke of a trial gets Hank sent up the river.

Six months later, Earl and Hank work for the same security company. Hank ends up at the Coca-Cola warehouse where Earl works because, while the guys who got Charlie killed are up to no good, Earl is making out with the secretary.

The result: a whole lot of wasted soda.

Earl and Hank now have to learn to work together so they can catch the guys responsible for Charlie's death. Never mind that they are not real cops. The results are hilarious and fun. There is even an exciting car chase which results in the pursuing cop cars turning upside down.

This is just a fun movie with some explosions, crashes and other excitement and plenty of laughs. Don't look for outstanding acting or writing, but to me Martin Lawrence is quite appealing despite his constant racist attitude. Toward the end, this is actually pretty good as the guys work toward solving the mystery.

One actor stands out: Cleo King is a black woman who picks up the guys when they need a ride. And she won't take any attitude, though she is really a nice person. She's not around long.

Martin Lawrence's stunt man (or men) does an impressive job. It's scary what they let him do.

Don't expect too much, and you won't be disappointed.