National Security

The film features two guys who are security guards teaming up to stop something foul, so it is sort of different I guess; however, the John Candy and Eugene Levy security guard duo movie is superior. I do like Steve Zahn and he makes this film a lot better than it has any right to be; yet, from a lot of posters and such, you would think he is a secondary character at best to Martin Lawrence who is front and center of all the promotional stuff for this film. Seems a bit unfair, considering the movie does actually center on Zahn's character more than Lawrence, who is funny in this, don't get me wrong, he just seems to be the second guy in this film.

The story in this one, Earl, played by Zahn and his partner are police and they end up in a very dangerous setting where Earl's partner is killed. Earl catches Lawrence's character after getting the boot from the police academy trying to reach in his car because he locked the keys in. Due to each other's situation at the moment, their meeting gets blown out of proportion and Earl ends up fired and imprisoned for beating Martin Lawrence, though in reality it was a bee sting that got Lawrence! Soon, Earl is out of prison and using any connection he can to try and find his partner's killer and soon he and Lawrence are reunited and find themselves in a plot involving some space aged metal!

As I said, Steve Zahn carries the film with Lawrence adding a bit of humorous touches here and there. I think they went overboard in how they got Earl terminated from his job, but I was glad everything worked out a bit in the end. Martin at times can be a bit much, so I am glad the focus is on Zahn as you almost want to tell Martin to settle down a bit with the ranting.

So, the film had its moments and was a bit funny. The action was pretty good in it too and probably overlooked as everyone is thinking this is strictly a comedy. One of those films my wife picked for movie night that was not too bad to watch; however, the film is not anything I would like to see again either unless it just happened to be on for some background noise. Wish Steve Zahn was in more stuff, because I always find him very funny as an actor; of course, these days you do not see much of him or Lawrence in films.

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.

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.

why is it martin lawrance always has to do black and white jokes in all of his films? brother this and brother that. frankly, im getting sick of it. also why isnt steve zahn on the cover of the dvd? finally i think steve is an under-rated actor. he rocks!

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.