Blue Streak

Martin Lawrence has already shown that he's comfortable doing action as long as there's a little comedy thrown in, so this was a no-brainer for both the actor and director Les Mayfield (Flubber). When the cops catch professional criminal Miles Logan (Lawrence) stealing a $20 million diamond, he hides it in a construction site; three years later he emerges from prison to find that the site has become the LAPD's newest precinct. In order to reclaim his booty, Logan has to pose as a cop, and through a zany turn of events he ends up fighting bad guys and solving crimes.

Lawrence is lucky he looks and acts like an overgrown 12-year-old boy -- that's how his floppy-body, rubber-face antics manage to reach deep down to the juvenile inside and, once in a while, yank out a chuckle before you even know wazzup. Sure, Blue Streak has gratuitous wacky characters (pizza-delivery guy with buck teeth and ugly jogging suit) and a few too many instances of "BAM!" and "Ka-POW!" in Lawrence's dialogue. Then again, nobody claimed this was the thinking man's movie. At the Harbour Mall, Holiday, Showcase, Tri-Boro, and Woonsocket cinemas.
-- Jumana Farouky