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Blue Streak |
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Jewel thief Miles Logan is arrested when a
heist goes bad. But right before they haul him
away, he manages to hide his stolen diamond
at a construction site. Two years later, he's out
of jail and he returns to the scene to retrieve
the loot. Surprise, surprise, what was just
another construction site is now a Los
Angeles police precinct. The balance of the
film depicts Logan posing as a police officer,
frantically searching for his lost treasure.
Positive Elements: At times the
L.A.P.D. is a bit clueless (they don't figure out
that Logan is not a cop until the very end) and
shiftless (Logan is immediately promoted to
lead detective to provide "good leadership" to
the staff) but they are portrayed as honest,
hard-working officers of the law. They take
their tasks of tracking down criminals very
seriously.
Sexual Content: A couple of
references to sex and Logan does a
double-take when he sees a naked woman
(off-screen).
Violent Content: Here is where this
PG-13 film comes off as R-rated. Early on, a
man is pushed from a tall office building. He
lands on top of a police car, where his dead
body is shown with blood dripping from his
eyes. Then the action heats up with multiple
gun battles, high-speed chases and heavy
doses of hand-to-hand combat. While Logan
pretends to be a cop, he interrogates several
suspects by beating and abusing them; once
squeezing a man's head between a glass
door and the wall to make him talk.
Crude or Profane Language: No
f-words, but nearly 50 s-words make much of
the dialogue very difficult to endure. Jesus'
name is also misused several times. In all,
there are well over 100 uses of profanity.
Summary: Blue Streak is
basically a Lethal Weapon film
featuring comedian Martin Lawrence. It thrives
on violent action scenes, foul language and
unethical behavior. Lawrence's character has
one motive and one motive only: get rich quick.
And he'll do anything to make that happen. He
impersonates a police officer (and is
portrayed as being a better cop than
those with whom he works). He strikes up
friendships that serve only to accomplish his
own selfish goals. The "bad guy" is the good
guy throughout the film. And that sends the
message to kids that if you're clever enough
and funny enough, you can do all sorts of
immoral things and still be "okay." In fact,
better than okay. In the end, Logan gets off
scott free—with his diamond—and lives
"happily ever after." It may be grand
entertainment, but it's a sorry theme.
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