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The movie starts with a high-tech caper scene. Jewel
thief Miles Logan, played by Lawrence, and his team put together a complicated
plan with illegal entry, alarm system work-arounds and steel getaway cables. As
predicted, everything goes wrong, and Lawrence is cornered on a construction
site with a $17 million diamond. He tapes it inside an air duct, is arrested,
and goes to prison.
Two years pass. Once released, he finds his old girlfriend,
played by Tamala Jones, isn’t happy to see him. (“I didn’t come to visit you
for two years. Isn’t that a sign?”) There is worse news. The building under construction
turns out to be a police station, and the diamond is hidden inside. How can he
get it? He tries to get to the burglary department on the third floor by
impersonating a crazy pizza delivery guy (the highlight of the movie). That’s
not a great idea, but he keeps improvising and is somehow mistaken for a real
cop. Soon he’s out on the street with a partner, played by Luke Wilson, who is
from the traffic division and excited to be working with a pro like Miles.
You can tell that Miles isn’t a usual cop. It doesn’t
take long for his partners to find out that his name and badge number isn’t in
the system. Roger Ebert said in his review, “But he's so confident, and so
ruthless in roughing up suspects, they assume he's a genuine law enforcement
officer of some description, who has infiltrated the department.” His superior,
played by William Forsythe, loves everything about him and starts debating
about his true identity. FBI? Internal Affairs? CIA? Ebert said, “The movie,
directed by Les Mayfield ("Encino Man"), doesn't settle for the gag
that Miles is a thief impersonating a cop. It takes that as a starting point
and wrings laughs out of it--for example, in a funny scene where Miles walks in
on a convenience store holdup that's being pulled by an old criminal buddy of
his. While the other cop covers them from a distance, Miles engages in a
desperate and unorthodox form of plea-bargaining.”
If the old friend, played by Dave Chappelle, doesn’t
expose him, Miles will promise him $10,000 and only one night in jail. Ok,
$20,000? Ebert admitted, “I've seen enough car chases to last several
lifetimes, but I like a good one when it's handled well, and the action in the
last act of this movie is not only high-style, but also makes sense in terms of
the plot.” Good casting of villains is important in action comedies (remember
Joe Pesci in “Lethal Weapon 2?”), and here the evil Peter Greene is a
convincing antagonist. Ebert noted, “The villain always has to be the thankless
straight man in a plot like this; he's never in on the joke, which is the joke.”
Martin Lawrence is a comic actor with real talent, not
always shown in the best way. “Bad Boys,” his buddy cop movie with Will Smith,
was not a career high point, and it took a certain thought to make another one.
However, “Blue Streak” works. True story: during production, Martin Lawrence
went jogging on a hot day with a wool hat on and passed out from heat
exhaustion. He woke up three days later and had to learn his motor skills again
because he was slurring. A movie like this is evidence that, given the right
material, he has a real gift. Hopefully he learned to be careful with the
jogging.
As I stated last week, I saw this movie with a couple
of cousins when I visited Pakistan in 2005. I found this movie to be really
funny, but I didn’t see it from beginning to end. A few years ago, I decided to
see the movie and I love this movie a lot. I know this wasn’t well received,
but I think this is one of the funniest buddy cop movies ever made. The lines
are just some of the most quotable. See this movie for yourself and you will
get some good laughs, I promise.
Next week, I will be looking at two movies that are
based on characters from books, but I think they are really good in “Buddy Cop
Month.”
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