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75The film is profane. But who knew police brutality could play as a laughing matter?
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75Entertaining and well done. Without losing its comic rhythm for a moment, it is also a withering spoof of black victimism and the corrupting effect of racial solidarity on the American legal system.
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70A funny, raucous action comedy, effectively teams Martin Lawrence and Steve Zahn in a film that's both laugh out loud funny and surprisingly subtle.
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67It's only a notch above the routine, and it obeys all the conventions of its tired formula, but it also tones the anarchy with a serious edge and it works a surprisingly effective vein of race-relations satire.
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63The picture is all Lawrence and Zahn, whose dynamics get something going, though not enough (please!) to spark a buddy sequel.
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50Lawrence and Zahn generate enough comic tension and mayhem to jump-start this mass of action-comedy cliches into a fairly amusing show.
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50Lawrence is often more irritating than funny, and it doesn't help that the direction is pedestrian and the screenplay dismal.
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The funny thing about Lawrence is he's often paired with a partner (e.g., ''Blue Streak,'' ''Bad Boys,'' etc.), yet has no aptitude for sharing the screen.
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50The career of the lovably tense Zahn may benefit more from this movie than that of Lawrence, who’s funny, here and there, but who appears to be working at half speed.
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As the two cop manqués overcome their dearth of common sense to save the day, the film achieves a comic playfulness.
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50Comes off as a retro reprise of those slam-bang, buddy-buddy action-comedies that proliferated throughout the '80s in the wake of "48 HRS."
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40The cliched plot and unconvincing action sequences -- don't blend well with the comic scenes and make the film look painfully cheap.
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38It's too bad the film never makes good on its early promise, but clearly, the rolling fireballs and flying bullets are the priority.
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30Lawrence clamors for the spotlight. If he ever found a way to make desperation look like charisma, he'd be the funniest man in America.
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30Has many more downs than ups, but this ragged action comedy, with Martin Lawrence and Steve Zahn as mismatched buddies, rings some outrageously funny changes on a deadly serious genre of amateur video that began with Rodney King.
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30Martin Lawrence is all there is to National Security. And that's about two or three points out of a possible 10
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25It's too bad Martin already made “What's the Worst That Could Happen?” The title really fits this one.
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25Everything about National Security is so lazy and uninspired, it's hard to believe that director Dennis Dugan also made "Happy Gilmore," arguably Adam Sandler's funniest movie.
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25Fails to meld suspense and farce or to bring even the wildest pursuits and smash-ups any visual sense of comedy.
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20The jokes are so tired and irritating in the film, I found myself anticipating the funny gags from the trailers because those were the only ones that were remotely humorous. In fact, I only laughed three times in the whole picture.
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20In the final analysis though, the only real thing being smuggled in National Security is unwitting patrons' admission fees.
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20To call Lawrence a poor man's Richard Pryor libels not just Pryor but also the 33 million Americans currently living under the poverty line.
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20The plot is astoundingly senseless.
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10Lacks the wit to do anything new and instead recycles tired jokes and attitudes.
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0A sour story with a repellent lead character, deadly comic schtick and tin-eared direction to produce 90 minutes of sheer, plodding mirthlessness.