National Security

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.

I usually don't like Martin Lawrence and I find his anti-white humor to be quite offensive as well as his string of bad movies. But compared to his other movie of 2003 (that would be the shockingly awful Bad Boys II), National Security is a rather easy-going and light-hearted cop comedy flick with quite a few good laughs. A lot of them, surprisingly, coming from Lawrence himself. Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn)is a cop who is unfairly thrown in jail for apparently beating a black suspect (Lawrence) who just got kicked out of Police Academy. With his career in tatters he emerges from the slammer with only one job opportunity available; a lowly guard for a lowly security company. Determined to follow up on the big case he was involved with before serving time, he crosses the path of fellow security guard Earl Montgomery (Lawrence again) and the two reignite their old conflict. The old love/hate buddy thing may be old and the plot may be silly but it's a great excuse for loads of action set-pieces and humor. The potentially dangerous comedy of black vs white never becomes offensive and is handled with such lightness that it never becomes an issue. Both men have their failings and bonuses and are as equal as each other. You really do feel a great partnership between them despite their arguing and fights. Give National Security a try. It's slick and fast-moving and is a helluva lot better than Bad Boys II. You'll probably be surprised at how funny Martin Lawrence is. I was. The DVD is in great looking 1.85:1 widescreen with pretty good Dolby 5.1 sound. The scenes where Lawrence uses his automatic pistol really pack a heavy punch in the .1 LFE channel. The usual deleted scenes and commentary are included on the DVD but I was surprised the extended ending wasn't included in the film. It would have been better with it.

National Security is a terrible comedy and one of the worst movies of the year. Earl and Hank have only one thing in common: they're both L.A.P.D. rejects. Hank just got kicked out, and Earl can't even get accepted in. After confronting each other on opposite sides of the law during a traffic stop that escalates way out of control, these two luckless individuals end up in partnership as security guards. Despite being damned to the lowest line of the law enforcement, Earl and Hank uncover a smuggling operation led by Nash and a his thugs. The plot sounds alright and it does have potential to be funny. Funny it wasn't though as this is one of the worst comedies I have ever seen. The reason this film is so bad is because of Martin Lawrence. Besides for a few films, Martin Lawrence has a terrible film record. He continues to get cast since some people find him funny. While he may deliver a funny line here or there, he usually goes over the top. His racism is so annoying and getting tired and he pretty much kills this film from succeeding. Steve Zahn plays his Hank and his talents are wasted. Dennis Dugan directs and he has made some pretty good films in the past including Big Daddy and Happy Gilmore. He does a terrible job this time around and hopefully he can rebound with his next film. National Security is such a poorly written comedy and it seemed like the writers weren't trying at all to be funny. The movie has nothing new to offer just the same tried gags as usual. The story turns out to be pretty dumb as well and not funny. The films running time is a brief 88 minutes. Even though, it drags at a lot of scenes and seems a lot longer. In the end, this film is defiantly worth skipping as well as most of Martin Lawrence's movies. Rating 3/10 avoid this "comedy" at all costs.

This is probably his best or one of his best in a long....long time. This is much better than Blue Streak and Lawrence plays the act well. His partner in the biz, Steve Zahn plays the angry white man great. This is a hilarious film and everyone couldn't stop laughing in the sold-out theater I was watching it from. I went with a couple of friends and we were laughing and repeating quotes all the way home. One quote that sent the crowd roaring was when Lawrence is talking to Nash (Julia Robert's Brother Eric) when they are out of the van with the certain items (watch the movie to find out).