Blue Streak

Martin Lawrence is a funny guy. I admit I usually like his acting. Unfortunately, his talent is wasted in “Blue Streak”.

This is another in a long string of action-comedy-buddy-movies with a stereotypical hip African-American male and a clueless white guy. Throw in the usual mishaps that happen in a story about someone impersonating someone else (Lawrence is a thief pretending to be a cop), connect the dots, and you can predict where this one is going. There are very few surprises to keep the audience interested.

The idea behind “Blue Streak” was promising, holding possibility, but the screenplay missed most of them. I found myself waiting for laughs that never came.

While Lawrence has been good in other films (“Boomerang”, “A Thin Line Between Love and Hate”), he appears to just be rehashing his persona from his television sitcom from a couple of years ago. Luke Wilson plays his slow-on-the-uptake sidekick, who miraculously figures things out later. Dave Chappelle, who’s one of Lawrence’s partners-in-crime, mugs for the camera too many times.

Humor ranges from slapstick to vulgar. Lawrence is known for his use of profanity, and he uses plenty of it here (to be expected). However, for the genre of film, the violence-factor was lower than expected. However, there are numerous assaults on characters that are played for laughs. Messages are given that it’s cool to be on the wrong side of the law. It’s also shown that is it okay to deceive people to get what you want, which flies in the face of Christian values that emphasize truthfulness. There is no sex at all in this movie.

I recommend this film only to those who are die hard Martin Lawrence fans. But even they might be disappointed in this by-the-numbers story.