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Hilarious!

National SecurityStarring: Martin Lawrence and Steve ZahnRated PG-13 for Violence, Language and Some SensualityGenre: Action/Comedy/Thriller/CrimeStar Rating: **** out of 5Earl (Martin Lawrence) and Hank (Steve Zahn) have only one thing in common: they're both L.A.P.D. rejects. One just got kicked out, the other can't even get in. After confronting each other on opposite sides of the law during a traffic stop that escalates out of control, these two luckless individuals end up partnered as lowly security guards. Despite being damned to the lowest rung of the law enforcement ladder, Earl and Hank uncover a sophisticated smuggling operation led by Nash and his band of thugs. When Earl and Hank get their hands on some hot property, they go on the run from, first the bad guys, then the L.A.P.D.--led by Lt. Washington and Detective McDuff. What these two unlikely partners do to law enforcement is a crime, but they just might save the day. That is, if they don't kill each other first. National Security was very funny! I think that is now my number one favorite Martin Lawrence movie! It also learns a great lesson about friendship just like most buddy action comedy movies. It also had a lot of cool music. I thought the most funny part was when Steve Zahn's character was trying to kill the bee but instead it looked like he was beating up Martin Lawrence's character. I think it would be cool if they made a sequel. But the movie made $35.8 Million Dollars but who knows what will happen? Also there was an alternate ending on the DVD.BOTTOM LINE: WHAT DA PROBLEM IS?

just plain awful

This movie was an absolute dud. I did not laugh once. I must've taken about five bathroom breaks just to get out of the theater. The hardest part is that this movie is also too loud to sleep through. Do yourself a favor and stay home instead of seeing this one.

I enjoyed it

This movie is one of my favorite movies from Dennis Dugan. Although i don't think Martin Lawrence isn't that funny, I thought he was funny in this movie. I really don't know what the problem is with this movie. I think the people who said this movie was terrible are low jealous pricks who wish they had the talent to act like Steve Zahn and to have the comedy Martin Lawrence had in this movie.

Don't waste your money

I rented this video with a gift card and I now regret it; I usually like Martin Lawrence but this movie was terrible. I should have rented something else. Is it a comedy? action flick? It fails on both. There was no chemisty between the actors and the writing was terrible.

what the problem is?

funny as hell all the way through, though is lags in some of the action parts and Eric Roberts seems like a dumb blonde with his blonde hair. my favortie part is when Zahn and Lawrence meet and then that damn bumblebee comes along and it looks like on a camera that Zahn is beating Lawrence up and he goes to jail. Zahn and Lawrence both have great one liners

favorite line
Martin Lawrence- Ma'am, you can repracure your vehicle(then it blows up and he turns to her and says) what the problem is?

Better than expected...

I saw the previews for this one, and I thought that, at the worst, it would a buddy, cop, action, comedy movie that would be a good way to burn an hour and a half. Color me surprised, then, when it turned out not only to to be a buddy, cop, action, comedy movie, but an engaging buddy, cop, action comedy movie with some weight to it.

Taking its cue from Rodney King, the film shows honest cop Hank having his career ruined when he is videotaped helping a black cop-wannabe, Earl Montgomery, avoid a bee sting. Naturally, he looks like he is beating Montgomery, who does little to help him when questioned by authorities. Railroaded into prison, and then forced to take a job as a security guard, Hank works to solve a very personal case on his own time. Naturally, he is forced to team up with Montgomery, also a National Security company employee. Along the way, there are lots of stunts, shootouts, and action when the bad guys try to stop Hank from solving the case.

The film had some good moments of drama as well, from the opening sequence, to Hank's admission of what he saw and how it affected him, and why he wants the bad guys to pay. I also liked the way it turns the "bad cop" and "racist cop" sterotypes on their head. I had to wonder if Hollywood has started to lean away from the PC, lock-step, hard left, traditional view of race relations (what with recent films like "Barbershop" and "National Security"), in favor of a more honest and realistic view of the issues.

The film was nicely compact, tightly designed, directed, and scripted. And did I mention it was funny? The disasters that face Hank, and then both Hank and his ersatz partner Montgomery, are right on the money when it comes to laughs. Martin Lawrence reigned in his more annoying qualities as Montgomery, while Steven Zahn was a pleasant surprise as the put-upon police officer Hank.

I wouldn't say that "National Security" was groundbreaking cinema or anything, but I really had a good time watching it, and I think you will too.

Racism is unacceptable in ANY form!

Although this movie had it's funny points, it was unfortunately a deplorable festival of racism. If a movie was made taking such a high degree of ill opportunity at any other race, it would be deemed unfit and would have been banned and labeled as the biggest injustice in the movie business. Well, it is. This is the very garbage that continues to perpetuate racism in America. This is an utter disgrace. Shame on you Martin Lawrence and shame on you Hollywood for making a film so insensitive and hateful. If you are even remotely fair of mind, DO NOT buy or rent this film.

Worst piece of Garbadge out this year

I received FREE passes to see "National Security" & all I have to say is "I want my 90 minutes of time wasted on this junk back" !!! I could go into detail but why bother you already know the simplistic cop movie formula. N.S. actually makes Rush Hour seem like a movie gem. As usual the funniest parts are shown in the trailer to "sucker you into" yet another piece of hollywood trash. Easily the WORST movie I've seen in months. Martin Lawerence's race joke(s) gets old after the 2nd attempt. Those people who liked or thought that this movie was any good are probably under 21 or have yet to see a lot of movies to gauge this crap against (I've seen my share of bad movies & this is way up there) just plain horribile & God-Awful, I would'nt even recommend paying to rent this junk. Have you seen this weeks top 10 movies ? #1 Kangaroo Jack #2 National Security - people will pay to see ANYTHING remotely funny these days & if people will pay $$$ Hollywood will continue to turn out garbage like this. WAKE UP people! 2 out of 10 (because that's how many times that I laughed)

I liked it!!

Martin Lawerence & Steve Zahn make a good team. Martin is very funny!! This film was very entertaining. The funniest parts in the movie are the "its because im black..." jokes. Great moment in the movie was when the lawerence & zahn caracters try and high-jack a ladys car, and she smacks them. Very funny movie. There were moments I was laughing out loud.

Why did I pay to see this?

This movie can be summed down in one word... garbage. Sure, I love both Martin Lawrence and Steve Zahn, but this movie did nothing for me but make me sad I spent $4 on it (which is cheap here).
I thought I was the only one who was upset about how every other line in the movie was about race. That just wasn't funny. I mean it was funny the first time Lawrence said one of those race jokes, but the rest of the time it just made me mad. Can't this movie have substance instead of being about "black vs. white"? The storyline is cliche. Cops partner is killed. Cop vows to find his partner's killer. Hank (Zahn's character) is the cop who wants to find his partner's killer. Earl (Lawrence's character) is seen trying to get his keys that are in his car, but it looks like he is trying to break in. Hank confronts him about this and threatens to arrest him. When a bee flies by Earl freaks because he is allergic to bees. Hank is seen swatting at the bee, but from the angle of a camera, it looks like he is beating Earl. Hank must go to jail, later to become a security guard. So Hank and Earl end up teaming up to find the killer of Hank's old partner.
Blah blah blah. Typical movie plus a lot of racial comments. It sucked so bad, I suggest you don't even watch it when it comes to network television.

Stereotypes

"National Security" is the latest misguided vehicle for Martin Lawrence. It's a mystery to most viewers how can this talented comedian fall so low. Either the people behind him don't have any idea of what to put him in, or Mr. Lawrence doesn't have any sense of what turkey to do next. After "The Black Knight" we thought no one would employ him, but he keeps turning in these dopey attempts at comedy.One can't help to wonder how minority groups would react to this movie had the racial slurs been directed at them. The blame rests with the studio, the production company, the writers and the director. The film is an inane attempt at comedy that is not funny at all.Steve Zahn must have his head examined for agreeing to appear in this unadulterated piece of @#$%

An action excuse to racism

I was really amazed with the attitude of the character played by Martin Lawrence. It was absolutely racist to the point that the Lawrence character send an innocent cop to jail and that is supposed to be funny. His obsession about being black is showed during most of the scenes with special stress on his lack-of-brilliant conclusion to the white cop when he tells him that "being innocent in jail + your girlfriend dumped you + an underpaid job after that" means you're a black guy. Basically the simple action plot was just an excuse to portrait was the movie is about: A different version of racism, promoted by the black not-funny main character.

Maybe I am not the target audience of this movie!. At least it was a rental

True comedy

When I watched the trailer i knew that it would be good. It was really funny. I laughed the whole time. Its everything you want about comedy. And those who are talking about crap. Like this movie is offensive. I mean please what are you wining about. If you like comedy National security is the movie for you. I watched it at least 3 times.

What the problem is?

I usually don't like Martin Lawrence and I find his anti-white humor to be quite offensive as well as his string of bad movies. But compared to his other movie of 2003 (that would be the shockingly awful Bad Boys II), National Security is a rather easy-going and light-hearted cop comedy flick with quite a few good laughs. A lot of them, surprisingly, coming from Lawrence himself.Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn)is a cop who is unfairly thrown in jail for apparently beating a black suspect (Lawrence) who just got kicked out of Police Academy. With his career in tatters he emerges from the slammer with only one job opportunity available; a lowly guard for a lowly security company. Determined to follow up on the big case he was involved with before serving time, he crosses the path of fellow security guard Earl Montgomery (Lawrence again) and the two reignite their old conflict.The old love/hate buddy thing may be old and the plot may be silly but it's a great excuse for loads of action set-pieces and humor. The potentially dangerous comedy of black vs white never becomes offensive and is handled with such lightness that it never becomes an issue. Both men have their failings and bonuses and are as equal as each other. You really do feel a great partnership between them despite their arguing and fights.Give National Security a try. It's slick and fast-moving and is a helluva lot better than Bad Boys II. You'll probably be surprised at how funny Martin Lawrence is. I was.The DVD is in great looking 1.85:1 widescreen with pretty good Dolby 5.1 sound. The scenes where Lawrence uses his automatic pistol really pack a heavy punch in the .1 LFE channel. The usual deleted scenes and commentary are included on the DVD but I was surprised the extended ending wasn't included in the film. It would have been better with it.

A worse than useless remake

I can just picture a bunch of studio suits sitting around and saying, "I think the world is ready for a remake of the 1986 John Candy movie 'Armed and Dangerous'. It was moderately clever and had a couple of high-powered funny men in it. So, we can do a cheap knockoff, follow roughly the same plot, include some of the same gags, have a cameo by Candy's old buddy Joe Flaherty, throw in a lot of race jokes because we can get away with them since we have Martin Lawrence in it, and nobody will be the wiser. We'll make a mint." Sure! That's what passes for creative thinking in Hollywood. Never try and come up with something original. Just recycle the same old stuff and not even bother to try an do it as well as it was done the first time, even if it was only so-so the first time. Oh well, it keeps the film crews working. The trash isn't their fault and they've got families to feed.

If you're not sophisticated enough for knock-knock jokes...

This is the ideal movie for those with frontal lobotomies.

If you think that a person being beaten, sent to jail and losing his wife--solely on account of his race--is really funny, you'll love this film. This "comedy" has all the fun of watching one's mother die.

Other than studio shills and imbeciles, who could like this atrocity? If there were no explosions, car chases and people being killed and maimed by Uzi-type firearms, in a blood splattered contagion of hilarious death and dismemberment, would even the drooling cretins who bring their young children to this kind of racist, violent, filthy "entertainment?" pay money to see it? Is "professional" wrestling too tame for them?

I saw it on TV--Cinemax, so it was sorta free; but I still felt cheated. I can't imagine the "director" of this garbage laying down a commentary tract...has he no shame? taste? conscience?

The more people I know, the more I like my dog.

GET A GRIP PEOPLE!!!

As a white guy, I was not the least bit offended by this movie. I think most people out there simply didn't get it. Martin Lawrence was PURPOSELY playing a character who was over the top in his suspicion of white people, especially cops.

I don't understand why so many people are put off. Lawrence was hardly subtle in playing a black Rodney-Kingesque character who then has to team up with the white cop who allegedly abused him.

And Lawrence's character is put in his place later in the film when he finds that the Steve Zahn character has a black girlfriend. I admit that this was a little heavy-handed, but that's how this movie goes.

That said..it was not a great movie. it was very predictable in plot. I knew right away who the bad guys would turn out to be, and pretty much how the story would unfold.

There were some funny moments, but this was pretty standard "odd-couple" action comedy ala Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour, but not nearly as good as those movies.

Martin Lawrence.. a poor man's Eddie Murphy?

National Security is the kind of film that has been made hundreds of times before, sometimes worse, many times better. Your typical Buddy Movie about two partners who start off hating each other but then gradually learn a grudging respect for the other guy, this one shows only spots of originality in the first 15 minutes before reverting to type. This could have been quite bearable though, if it wasn't for two reasons: A very annoying central performance, and an incessant racism and sexism streak that permeates the production.The film actually starts out quite well, with Steve Zahn playing the straight role as the police officer who, with his partner, makes a warehouse bust and become involved in a shoot out with the bad guys. Unfortunatly, his partner gets shot and dies, and the criminals get away. While this is going on, motormouth Lawrence (covering the same sort of territory Chris Rock mined in the Rush Hour movies) is training to be a cop, sadly though in a training exercise he goes slightly overboard and ends up destroying most of his surroundings. He gets kicked off the premises, and on his way home he stops to get something to eat, locking his car door but leaving the keys inside. At this point Zahn comes past just having returned from his friends funeral and spots Lawrence's futile attempts to retrieve his keys by sticking his hand through the open window. He obviously makes the assumption that perhaps he has a case of grand theft auto on his hands, and stops to question Lawrence. It's at this point the movie starts to pall, with Lawrence thinking his arrest is down to racism and after a mistake involving a tourist's camera and a bumble-bee Zahn is thrown off the force for allegedly abusing Lawrence with his stick. After spending the best part of six months in solitary, he can be forgiven for wanting to knock Lawrence into the middle of next week for lying at the trial and generally being an obnoxious idiot, but for the time being the two must team up as security men to crack a metal alloy smuggling ring (don't ask) one of whom's members wouldn't you know, turns out to be the guy who shot Zahn's partner. Funny that!Every time Lawrence opens his gob in National Security, it will either be a) A white man/ black man joke or b) a statement along the lines of "I know more about police work than you do." It is true that Eddie Murphy said much the same things in the Beverly Hills Cop films, but he actually made some effort to flesh out his character and provide himself with some semblance of personality, here Lawrence seems to takes offense to everything that is said or done to him and responds with a tirade of racial jokes, which grow old real fast. Also he seems to possess a strange magnetism in this film that causes every woman he comes into contact with to fall at his feet with desire. (The exception is a polite middle-aged lady who doesn't take too kindly to the idea of our mismatched duo hi-jacking her vehicle for an emergency chase). This is a complete mystery as he has nothing to offer at all apart from a few cheap innuendos involving handcuffs and strip-searches (ho ho). This is a key example of a script making people respond to situations in a way they never would in real life. Zahn on the other hand, tends to fade into the background at times and lets Lawrence get on with it. Unlike Lawrence, he has a few emotional moments that he handles quite well, though they feel out of place in what is essentially a knockabout comedy.The plot goes off on its tired little way, and we get crosses, double crosses, plenty of fights between our combative twosome and lots of completely over the top explosions, which must have ate up at least a third of the budget (Lawrence and Zahn aren't exactly marquee names.) You'll probably more fun ticking the cliches off: The Police chief is a big black man, The lead villian has bleached blonde hair (He looks like a grown up version of Malfoy from the Harry Potter flicks) and the partners who can't stand the sight of each other are best friends by the end of the movie. Yeah!! To be fair, there are a few amusing scenes and a pretty good shoot-out in a drink storage room if you like that sort of thing, but overall you can do much better than this and I wouldn't even recommend it as a rental. In fact you'll probably have forgotten about it in less time than it took you to read this review. Now what was it called again?!4/10

Hilarious

The movie doesn't start off as Martin Lawarnce and Steve Zahn as partners. Hank Steve's character is a cop and Martin's characters gets his keys stuck in his car and Steve thinks Earl Martins character is stealing his car. Hank then trys to consult Earl but he won't bit. A bumble bee then stumbles in and Earl is alergic to bumble bee's and Hank trys to get it out and a local citezin records this incident. Then Earl charges Hank with assualt because he's black. You have got to watch this film. It is fu&^$&& funny!!!!WATCH IT!!!

Painful

The good old story: white intelligent man and a black dumb bigmouth.After exactly 52 minutes the black bigmouth gets serious and the showdown can start.National Security follows this plot (like many other films) but the script is very weak and the acting is very poor.The first 52 minutes are painful and the remaining 28 minutes had some fun and action.My personal recommendation: watch this while doing your regular job but never spend a Dollar, Euro or Yen on it.