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Blue Streak is a by the numbers police action comedy but it
works due to a winning cast and because at no point does it
try and take itself seriously.
Martin Lawrence has his first major lead role as Miles Logan
a high tech jewel thief who gets rumbled while pulling off a
amjor diamond heist. He gets put away but manages to stash the
rock in a construction site before he is caught. Upon his release
he expects to be able to just wander back and collect his diamond
but to his dismay he discovers that the building site is now
an LAPD police station. In order to get into the building to
find the jewel he has to impersonate a cop. This leads to all
sorts of comic misadventures as the police chief mistakes him
for the department's new lead detective. Logan gets sent on
assignments and ends up being spectacularly good at his job
due partly to his familiarity with the criminal mind and partly
due to dumb luck.
Lawrence is not quite in the class of the likes of Eddie Murphy
or Will Smith, but he does a pretty good job in this as the
sassy but likeablejewel thief. He is ably supported by an excellent
cast of dumb cops including Luke Wilson as his rookie partner
and William Forsythe. Throw in a couple of Logan's crooked buddies
Peter Greene and David Chappelle and you get an hour and a half
of dumb ass laughs.
The whole plot is pretty ridiculous but you can't help laughing
at the most inept bunch of law enforcers since Police Academy
or TV's Sledgehammer. Director Les Mayfield would also probably
admit to being heavily influenced by the Beverly Hills Cop movies.
Watch out as well for plenty of car chases and explosions to
keep up the adrenalin level.
Good clean fun at the expense of LAPD. Again.
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