Blue Streak

Martin Lawrence walks in the shadow of Eddie Murphy. He's black, he makes faces, he does that dance thing.

No, this is not the follow up to Top Gun. How cool can a plot be? If a crook became a cop, he would think like a crook and catch all his buddies. Not nice.

Miles Logan (Lawrence) is a safecracker, who hides a priceless diamond in the airduct of a half-finished building when a heist goes wrong. After serving two years for breaking and entering, he goes back to the building to retrieve his rock, only to discover the place has become the headquarters of the LAPD.

He fakes an identity, forges some papers, pretends to be a detective, in order to get inside. Once there, he is accepted for what he isn't and sent out with a greenhorn (Luke Wilson) to clean up the city. The situation is full of comic potential. Lawrence doesn't have the style of Will Smith or the manic range of Chris Tucker (Rush Hour). The driver in the original heist, Dave Chappelle, who keeps messing with Logan in his cop disguise, is funnier.

Blue Streak is made for Murphy, who thrives on camouflage, subterfuge and the hustle. Lawrence does, too, but it's not the same: it's as if Emelio Estevez played the Richard Dreyfuss part in Stakeout.