Blue Streak

Martin Lawrence's verbal pyrotechnics cannot rescue this formulaic buddy movie about a jewel thief who, before he is arrested, manages to stash the $20 million diamond he has just heisted in a building under construction. When he is released from prison after two years, he returns to the scene of the crime to discover that the now-completed building is a police station. With a fake I.D., he passes himself off as a hotshot detective. Ironically, thanks to his years of breaking and entering, he proves himself a natural at cracking burglary cases. Lawrence can definitely talk a blue streak, but little of what he has to say here is very funny. Indulgent sequences where he has been given free reign to ad-lib (as when he first enters the police station outlandishly disguised as a snaggle-toothed pizza deliveryman--you'd think the last thing his character would want to do is call attention to himself) are the film's weakest. The script is derivative, the rote action sequences uninspired and the characters--including a prerequisite by-the-book white partner for Lawrence--clichéd. Equally depressing is the film's upbeat amoral ending. Not recommended. (K. Lee Benson)[Blu-ray Review—Nov. 25, 2008—Sony, 94 min., PG-13, $28.95—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1999's Blue Streak sports a good transfer with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 sound. Blu-ray extras include the 22-minute “making-of” featurette “Setting Up for the Score,” a 22-minute “HBO First Look” behind-the-scenes featurette, three music videos: “Girl's Best Friend” by Jay-Z, “Criminal Mind” by Tyrese featuring Heavy D, and “Damn (Should Have Treated You Right)” by So Plush featuring Ja Rule. Bottom line: a decent extras package and a shiny new Blu look for Blue Streak don't change the fact that this is still a mediocre film.]