Nice effects though.

Fantastic!

Am I Missing Something?

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Well my son liked this film and found it really funny. I did not, I thought it was as funny as a dose of the clap.Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) is an emotionally charged cop who saw his partner get killed by a vicious gang raiding a warehouse. He is later unfairly thrown in jail for an apparent beating of a black suspect for a supposed breaking into a car. The suspect is Earl Montgomery (Martin Lawrence) who just got thrown out of the Police Academy and he did not get beaten up by Hank, he was stung by a bee and got an allergic reaction but has decided to make the most out of it.In jail Hank had to spend time in solitary confinement as the black inmates were out to get him. Upon his release he gets a job as a security guard and crosses paths with Earl who is also a security guard. Both bicker but find out that the bad guys they are chasing are now out to get them both.This is a mismatched buddy film and it was obvious Eddie Murphy passed on the script before Lawrence got it. The fact that a black character (who is the star of the film) lets an innocent man go to jail is offensive in all sorts of ways.For a start how can you root for the central character who is behaving in a racist manner himself? A decade after this film was made we still have innocent black people getting shot dead by the police for supposed minor traffic violations but here we just fit up an innocent policeman (who we later find out has a black girlfriend) for trying to shake off a bee. Way to go there for the fight for civil rights Mr Lawrence.The action sequences are well staged, Eric Roberts is wasted as the bad guy, there is a subplot about police corruption but I have seen this done better in 48 Hours or Beverly Hills Cop.

Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) and Charlie Reed (Timothy Busfield) are LAPD officers who responded to an alarm. Charlie is killed right in front of helpless Hank. He is forbidden to investigate the robbery. Earl Montgomery (Martin Lawrence) is a smart-mouthed recruit who gets kicked out. He locked himself out of his car and Hank confronts him. A bumble bee cause a media sensation of another police beating. Hank is fired and prosecuted. After time in the state pen, all Hank could get is lowly security guard job. When a similar break-in happens, Hank investigates and finds the same bad guys led by Nash (Eric Roberts). Earl works as the security guard in the building and the unlikely duo goes after the bad guys.This is not a particularly good way to build a good buddy cop duo. Basically everybody is an idiot. The only hope is that everybody is a corrupt villain. Martin Lawrence is horribly horrendously unlikeable racist. None of his antics are funny. It's the same old character that he does except more annoying. This is just bad.

It's difficult when it comes to buddy cop genre films. For the most part, unless the crew has some creative writers or there is some other aspect to the film viewers have not experienced before, it'll be hard to impress film goers. This particular story is about as generic as they come - two security guards who are basically polar opposites in every respect are put into a situation where they must work together to solve their problems and gain the respect they desire. The only thing that distinguishes itself from other buddy cop films is that the two main characters aren't cops, their security guards. So the hilarity is supposed to be based on the fact that they're acting like cops but don't have the authority to do so. Does it work? Ummmmm not exactly.Our two main leads are Hank (Steve Zahn) and Earl (Martin Lawrence) who only encounter each other by chance. When in fact, their paths were bound to cross after Hank loses his original partner in a robbery bust - but they both didn't know that. Jay Scherick and David Ronn's writing aren't anything out of the ordinary from other projects before this. It also shows that their creativeness hasn't improved much since they've been in the industry with all the ratings they got after this movie and it shows. Hank and Earl go through the typical character arc of being at each others throats and then realizing they're living the same kind of life - almost. This kind of realizations comes more as a joke than reality, yet this helps the two characters connect. Is that really the strongest bond they have between each other - a joke?The direction provided by Dennis Dugan, who has had his fair share of good and bad movies with audiences, at least keeps the flow of the movie consistent. If there's one word to call the pace of this movie, it's that it's steady. It's not super fast nor is it terrifyingly slow. This would be OK if anything else really felt worth a watch more than the first time seeing it. Acting wise, Steve Zahn plays Hank straight like any guy would in his situation but it doesn't make him stand out much. I also swear that I've heard his character being called different names during the film - Henry, Nick....ummm do the actors know the characters name? Martin Lawrence on the other hand works at making his character stand out even though his character is just a forgettable as his partners. Saying "what the problem is?" consistently is not going to make the character sound any smarter or any funnier. It just means that Mr. Scherick and Mr. Ronn could not come up with a better phrase to say. Martin Lawrence can say much funnier things than that.Surprisingly, these aren't the only other recognizable actors that show up in this comedy. Colm Feore from John Woo's Face/Off (1997) and later in Thor (2011) heads the police department. Bill Duke, best known for having a role in both Schwarzenegger films Commando (1985) and Predator (1987) plays one of the chiefs along side Feore's role. Eric Roberts plays one of the villain's henchmen and like many other films, Roberts is just there. Heck, even Stephen Tobolowsky has a small role where he's some genius metal technician guy that can relay top secret information to our two main leads. Tell me how that makes any sense? That's one flaw that really stands out in the film. Speaking of which, what was the villain's motivation for the stolen items from the robbery bust? It was explained what its use was for and that it costs a ton of money but the story never got to a point where the actual stolen property would be used in an application. Feels a bit underdeveloped. Other than that, the comedy may only produce casual chuckles among viewers. It isn't even regularly funny. The special effects and action scenes are executed professionally but aren't anything unique. Even more shocking is that composer Randy Edelman produced the music to film but it is barely heard at all. Edelman can produce a quality score,...why has he been pushed aside? For shame.With acting that only goes so far and writing that makes sense half the time, this buddy cop film aims for average and that's all it is. Even the addition of other sporadic cast members and a steady pace doesn't make it any more unique.

i personally didn't find this movie particularly funny... really its just a horrible sequence of stereotypes about how the poor black man is always the victim and at the same time how playing the victim is racist in and of itself.im not really sure what else to say about it... its a movie... it tries to be funny i guess... martin lawrence is sometimes funny, but in this movie i just found its constant crying about how black people are poorly treated and how white people are just evil slave masters constantly trying to get the black man down tiresome...So if feeling sorry about your race and putting the blame on everyone else is your kind of humor im sure you would really like this movie... personally i just find it racist all around... and people should really stop trying to single themselves out for what color they are, if you really have a problem with racism maybe you should take a good long look at yourself in the mirror, things like this really only do more harm than good...But hey thats just my 2 cents.... 2/10