NATIONAL SECURITY —* — Martin Lawrence, Steve Zahn, Bill Duke, Eric Roberts, Colm Feore, Robinne Lee, Timothy Busfield, Matt McCoy; rated PG-13 (violence, profanity, vulgarity, brief sex, racial epithets); see "Playing at local movie theaters" for complete listing of local theaters.
To give you an idea of how completely, desperately unfunny "National Security" is, even Steve Zahn isn't funny.
Zahn is the guy who . . . almost . . . made such mediocrities as "Dr. Dolittle 2," "Saving Silverman," "Forces of Nature" and "The Object of My Attention" tolerable. He's a funny guy.
This time, however, he's stuck with a no-win situation. This alleged action-comedy tries to mine laughs from some of the most racially offensive material in recent memory. Who thought it was a good idea to make fun of the Rodney King beating or other racially motivated police-brutality?
The rest of the film is so haphazard and half-hearted that it appears to have been thrown together — as if the director and stars showed up to the set and started making up the whole thing on the spot.
The film's title refers to a security company where ex-cop Hank Rafferty (Zahn) finds himself working after he is convicted of police brutality in the beating of a black man named Earl Montgomery (Martin Lawrence). Hank tried — to no avail — to prove his innocence but wound up behind bars. Upon his release, he's still acting like a cop as he tries to track down the thieves who murdered his former partner (Timothy Busfield).
Unfortunately, his only ally may be Earl, a police academy wash-out who also works for the security company, and who sees a prime opportunity to prove himself as well.
Director Dennis Dugan has helmed a couple of Adam Sandler comedies, and his lack of comic skills are all too apparent here. Also, his idea of building tension is slow-motion camera work.
Worse, his slack direction allows Lawrence to riff continually and mug for the camera (there's no way any self-respecting screenwriter could have come up with most of his character's lame one-liners). Lawrence's performance is so embarrassing that you can practically see Zahn looking for some way to get out of this mess.
"National Security" is rated PG-13 for violence (gunplay, hand-to-hand combat, some slapstick and explosive mayhem), occasional use of strong profanity (including one usage of the so-called "R-rated" curse word), vulgar sex talk and sexual references, brief sexual contact and use of some racial epithets. Running time: 95 minutes.
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