So I've been feeling nostalgic the past year or so. So many things in my life are new and exciting that it's been so long since I've had a chance to sit back and enjoy things from times past and I guess that I've missed many of the things that I have enjoyed. But then when I went out searching for a piece of my past I found a copy of a movie that I loved so much it easily made my to 20 of all time which is a very hard list to make. I sat with my wife who had never seen it before and was so excited to share one of the things that I loved, something that I felt shaped my way of looking at and creating stories. It was a romantic action film with amazing actors and an epic storyline....and it sucked.
Everything I loved about it seemed childish, underdeveloped, and just plain stupid. I was sitting on the couch with my wife who was shocked at how horrible of a movie we were watching that I had promised was an amazing movie in which to spend the night watching with popcorn and wine. Honestly, I felt like part of my youth had died. Something that I loved had died in my eyes and I found myself fearing watching anything else that I loved watching before because I didn't want to ruin anything else. Now, I have taken a vow of blindness when it comes to Star Wars because I don't want my son seeing it before he is old enough to remember that moment in which he was first exposed to the most amazing piece of science fiction ever created. But now I found myself happy that I wasn't watching those movies because I couldn't bear to loose them. This is when I realized that I had to do something. I had to face my fears and start watching old movies and reading old books. I had to do this and hope that my past would not be ruined. And what better way to share this experience than with a blog! But I won't share my experience with the first movie, at least not yet. I've been far to negative lately and I need to turn in a different direction. So my first Way Back Review will be of the second film I tired. Blue Streak.
Blue Streak came out when Martin Lawrence was just coming into his own as a leading man in movies. He had already dominated TV with his self titled show that let him flex as many comedic muscles as he could find, as well as played the comedic sidekick in a few movies. But up until this movie he was always co staring with other actors as the leads. He stared in the very successful Bad Boys with Will Smith and the lesser known gem Nothing to Lose with Tim Robbins. Both were hysterical but now it was time for him to stand on his own.
Basic plot is that professional thief Miles Logan steals a large diamond but is betrayed by his partner. With the cops breathing down his neck and his partner trying to kill him, Logan hides the diamond in the air ducts of a building being constructed and gets caught by the police as opposed to his partner. A few years later, Logan gets out of jail and finds that the building that he hid the diamond in has been completed and now is the police headquarters. Logan must now go "undercover" as a police officer with forged paperwork in order to gain access to the building and try to find the diamond.
I couldn't tell you what makes this movie more hilarious, Martin Lawrence's performance as a thief who has to use all his skills to infiltrate a seemingly inept police precinct, all the while using all he knows about crime to solve crimes himself, or the outrageous cast of secondary characters played by Luke Wilsen and Dave Chappelle. The best gags are Logan's constant upgrading of his rank as a police officer from detective all the way to a Federali! Followed by Luke Wilsen's portrayal of a by the book rookie who learns how to be a "real" cop from Logan. Then there's Chappelle as an out of work con who blunders himself into a shootout between a store clerk and himself that leads to a stand of with the police that only Logan can get him out of. Regardless this movie will leave you quoting lines for weeks to come.
As far as the writing and directing go they are pretty solid. Like every comedy thrown at comics at the time there were a few down times but Blue Streak seems to find a decent balance between story and laughs that keeps it moving. One of the really good points is that after 80 minutes of set up gags the movie finishes with a pretty solid and oddly fitting serious action sequence that gets you to really rally behind Logan and cheer him on. I won't give it away but the end is pretty funny and one of the most quotable scenes.
All in all this movie is a great watch that has held up very well. Maybe it is it's lack of dependency on current pop culture jokes or just one of those rare but really solid movies that can just stand the test of times. My verdict is watch it if you haven't and watch it again if you already have.
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