Review of Blue Streak

Introduction

Miles Logan (Martin Lawrence) is a bank robber, a bank robber who picks the wrong colleagues. The biggest blag of his life turns sour and he`s forced to hide the diamond on a construction site.

A police station construction site.

This is the story of how Logan gets back the diamond but also goes his bit for society in an unorthodox way.

Logan must keep his identity secret whilst encountering all his old hood pals who want a piece of the action.

Video

The anamorphic widescreen picture is up to the normal standards we have come to expect for the format, but does not stand out as a top contender. Yes the pictures are sharp and clear and the colours have no bleed or graining, but still there is something at the back of my head that says it could have been better.

The scenes are well lit and the sequences that take place at night or in the dark are very well done with crystal clear images right into the distance, but still…

Audio

The soundtrack is another area where I feel that little more work could have been done. For the majority of the film I was wondering if my rear soundstage was actually working. The steering of the effects at the front was very well achieved with some nice touches, but it wasn`t until right near the end that rears came to life.

Admittedly when they did show up it was nicely done with bullet ricochets from either side. Subtle effects throughout the film were handled well and a second listen/watch may indeed improve the situation, but still…

Features

Extras are fairly well catered for with the cinema trailer. 3 music videos, filmographies of the two main characters and the director and also not one but two behind the scenes features. Both of these are about 20 minutes long with one being a product of the HBO company. This one is more an advertising feature than a documentary used as an elongated trailer.

Both of the features look at the casting of the main actors and also how the story developed when everyone was on set with plenty of ad-libbing and script re-writing along the way.

Of course we also get that favourite of all in-depth extras the animated menu.

Conclusion

Extras are fairly well catered for with the cinema trailer. 3 music videos, filmographies of the two main characters and the director and also not one but two behind the scenes features. Both of these are about 20 minutes long with one being a product of the HBO company. This one is more an advertising feature than a documentary used as an elongated trailer.
The box cover says "The Bad Boy is Back" and you can`t fault that line as this is essentially Martin Lawrence continuing the same style of character that he played alongside Will Smith, even down to some of the lines.

As a serious piece of cinema it`s never going to achieve cult status but as a Saturday night in front of the box with a pizza and beer it`s a good entertaining film. For a cast of mostly minor actors and a director who hasn`t made that many movies it works well and from the behind the scenes features you can see that some of the humour of the set has made it`s way into the final production.

The question does remain though, surely the easiest way to get into a [police station to explore the ventilation system is as a heating and ventilation engineer, but still…