National Security

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Director Dennis Dugan ("Happy Gilmore," "The Benchwarmers") doesn't cover any new ground in this L.A.-based buddy cop flick, which is probably more in the mold of "48 Hours" than anything else because it pairs a decent white cop with a screwball black quasi-partner who's more afoul of the law. But in the commentary track Dugan admits that all he cares about is making a movie that entertains people and takes their minds off their troubles for 88 minutes.

In that case, hold the planes and string up the banner: Mission Accomplished. And if all you're wanting to do is make a modest little entertainment, what better place to start than with Martin Lawrence, who, aside from an early appearance in Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" (1989) and some nice voiceover work in "Open Season" (2006), has yet to appear in a film that registers on the meter any higher than "okay." But at least "National Security," like his other cop picture, "Blue Streak" (1999), is better than "House Party" (1990). Or "Big Momma's House" (2000). Or "Black Night" (2001). Or any of those other super-sillious films of his that require a tranquilizer dart to get most people to sit through the whole thing.

Happily, that's not the case here. But writers Jay Scherick and David Ronn ("I Spy," "Norbit") flirt with a concept that's risky, at best. At the outset, we see a mostly serious cop segment in which good-guy, good-cop Hank Rafferty watches his partner get blown away in a warehouse heist that had inside job written all over it. That somber background sequence is matched by a silly one involving Earl Montgomery (Lawrence) at the L.A. Police Academy, whose racially sensitive attitude ("Why, because I'm BLACK?") and loose cannon style leaves the training facility in a fiery mess and gets his keesteer booted out the door. That serious thread and silly one don't exactly make for a natural weave, and there are some awkward moments as a result. But surprisingly you get to the point where you buy it--not as realism, mind you, but at least as a premise that's not so illogical that it makes you sit there and go "Huh?" for the rest of the movie.

Things really go in the crapper for poor Hank after he meets Earl, whom he sees reaching into a car in a nice neighborhood, trying to get the keys he left inside. "Can I help you?" he says. "Don't you mean, 'Are you trying to steal this car?'" Earl snaps. "Okay," nice-guy Hank says, "Are you trying to steal this car?" Then Earl's reaction and blatant disrespect for the law (though he's right-on about the racial profiling) rubs Hank the wrong way, especially since he's still smarting from the death of his partner. Before you know it, Hank has Earl in a choke hold, a bee flies by and, in the most ridiculous stretch of logic, the hyper-allergic Earl starts screaming so much that Hank tries to get the bee. Of course, it would have been better had he not been swinging his baton at it, because a family picnicking in the park gets the whole thing on tape, and it looks like just another white-cop/black man Rodney King-style beating. Next thing you know we're in a courtroom, and quick as you can quip about DWBs (Driving while black), Hank finds himself sentenced to six months in prison. And after a running gag or two, he's back on the streets and in uniform again--as a National Security guard, same as his nemesis.

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