Well my son liked this film and found it really funny. I did not, I thought it was as funny as a dose of the clap.Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) is an emotionally charged cop who saw his partner get killed by a vicious gang raiding a warehouse. He is later unfairly thrown in jail for an apparent beating of a black suspect for a supposed breaking into a car. The suspect is Earl Montgomery (Martin Lawrence) who just got thrown out of the Police Academy and he did not get beaten up by Hank, he was stung by a bee and got an allergic reaction but has decided to make the most out of it.In jail Hank had to spend time in solitary confinement as the black inmates were out to get him. Upon his release he gets a job as a security guard and crosses paths with Earl who is also a security guard. Both bicker but find out that the bad guys they are chasing are now out to get them both.This is a mismatched buddy film and it was obvious Eddie Murphy passed on the script before Lawrence got it. The fact that a black character (who is the star of the film) lets an innocent man go to jail is offensive in all sorts of ways.For a start how can you root for the central character who is behaving in a racist manner himself? A decade after this film was made we still have innocent black people getting shot dead by the police for supposed minor traffic violations but here we just fit up an innocent policeman (who we later find out has a black girlfriend) for trying to shake off a bee. Way to go there for the fight for civil rights Mr Lawrence.The action sequences are well staged, Eric Roberts is wasted as the bad guy, there is a subplot about police corruption but I have seen this done better in 48 Hours or Beverly Hills Cop.

Martin Lawrence was absolutely funny in this movie,, he had so many great one liners I couldn't stop laughing the entire movie,, yeah the buddy cop genre has pretty much worn out it's welcome in the last 20 years. but this one is refreshing. Steve Zahn who I never heard of was also funny at times.. the main story of the movie is that our main character arrests a man and turns out he wasn't even guilty,, together they are thrown together to go up against some bad guys , and have a lot of fun in doing so.. yes there are some aspects that are played out over and over again, but for the most part, there are some interesting thiings going on in the movie that I haven't seen that much of before,, I f you're looking for a comedy that will make you laugh all of the way thru the movie, then this is for you.

This movie was so awful I couldn't even finish it. It's a bad buddy cop comedy that relies on unfunny race jokes for the whole film and doesn't attempt to do anything else. It's unfunny, boring, and racist to both whites and blacks, and i'm not one who is easily offended. I actually like Martin Lawrence and I will admit that he had one funny scene a few minutes into the film, but his character quickly becomes obnoxious, bigoted, and annoying that I couldn't stand him. Whats even worse is that the film trys to portray him as a good guy and ask us to root for him despite making his character look look like a total bigot. Steve Zahn does an awful job here and is neither funny or likable. It's no wonder the only work he gets now is starring in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid films. This is a cheap looking awful action comedy that shouldn't be viewed by any means.

I like Martin Lawrence, I thought he was funny in "Martin", "Blue Streak" , and the Bad Boys films. In those films, however Lawrence plays a likable character. In National Security he plays a racist dolt. Lawrence is a security guard who tried and failed to be a LA cop. After a cop played by Steve Zahn mistakenly believes he is trying to steal a car, a bee flies by and Zahn tries to swat it away. It is misconstrued as an act of police brutality and Lawrence lies and gets Zahn thrown in jail.Throughout the movie Lawrence's character is racist, he is also a hypocrite believing that white men shouldn't be with black woman, but if the roles are reversed well, that's just fine. Lawrence's character's actions aren't simply racist against whites but against blacks as well, making whites look racist against blacks and blacks look like race-card playing jerks. If the roles were reversed and Zahn was making stupid quips about blacks this film would be assailed as racist, if it were released at all. Avoid.