# Blue Streak (1999)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    BLUE STREAK
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

Squirrels hide their treasured food and then forget the location. But not master jewel thief Miles Logan (Martin Lawrence). In BLUE STREAK he knows exactly where he hid his treasured diamond, but that isn't enough. The location has become inaccessible to him.

Two years earlier, Miles was caught in the process of a big high tech robbery, a la ENTRAPMENT's opening sequence, so he taped the $20,000,000 diamond that he had stolen into an air-conditioning vent of a nearby building that was under construction. Released from prison, he returns to collect his prized gem. But -- horror of horrors! -- the building turns out to be occupied by the L.A. Police Department.

Miles needs a ruse to get himself through the tight security. In a slapstick sequence, he puts on the world's worst fake teeth in order to impersonate a dimwitted, pizza deliveryman. Dancing and prancing with exuberant confidence, he still doesn't get in.

Switching techniques, he obtains a phony police id and badge. Practicing police maneuvers by mimicking the gestures on the television series, "Cops," he becomes proficient in law enforcement practices. The problem is that, once he's inside, he's assumed to be the new detective in charge of the robbery division. Having been in robbery all his life, he has just the right skills to trap the crooks since he can think like them. The story's running joke is that Miles keeps getting interrupted in looking for the diamond as he is called away to lead various robbery investigations.

Carlson (Luke Wilson, Drew Barrymore's boyfriend in HOME FRIES), a recent transfer from the traffic department, is assigned as his partner. Carlson, a naïve and incompetent rookie detective, is as timid as they come. Soon, however, under Miles's tutelage, he's driving like a maniac when pursuing criminals.

Miles's old girlfriend (Tamala Jones) refuses to have anything to do with him once he's out because she didn't realize his line of work until he was arrested. "You told me you were a banker," she says. "No, a bank robber," he explains, "sometimes I stutter." Most of the lightweight jokes in John Blumenthal's script are at that level, producing many a nice grin, but no big laughs.

The movie's trailers, thanks to much punchier editing, make the script's best jokes come alive. With the film's more languid pacing, they come across flat. Some have been eliminated entirely. If you've seen the trailers, you can easily fix your expectations for the movie itself, which is a notch below them in quality.

The good-spirited movie breaks no new ground. The tired buddy format has been used hundreds of times before -- sometimes better, sometimes worse. Lawrence proves a likable lead and there's nothing much in the film to criticize or to praise. It's an inconsequential movie that you'll enjoy while watching but forget completely by the time you get to the parking lot.

BLUE STREAK runs 1:33. It is rated PG-13 for some profanity and violence and would be fine for kids age 9 and up.

My son Jeffrey, age 10, really liked it and gave it *** 1/2. He especially liked the show's twists and the ending.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews