National Security (film)

National Security
Poster for National Security.
Directed by	Dennis Dugan
Produced by	Moritz Borman Martin Lawrence Peaches Davis Nigel Sinclair Jeff Kwatinetz Robert Newmyer
Written by	Jay Scherick David Ronn
Starring	Martin Lawrence Steve Zahn
Music by	Randy Edelman
Cinematography	Oliver Wood
Editing by	Debra Neil-Fisher
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	January 17, 2003
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$50,097,949 (worldwide)

National Security is a 2003 action comedy film, directed by Dennis Dugan, starring Martin Lawrence and Steve Zahn. In addition to Lawrence and Zahn, National Security boasts an additional cast of Bill Duke, Eric Roberts, Colm Feore, Matt McCoy, and others.

The film was released in January 2003 and went on to gross over $53,000,000 at the box office. The film was shot at various locations in Greater Los Angeles, including Long Beach and Santa Clarita.

Plot

A gang of thieves break into a high-security warehouse. An alert is sent to the police, but canceled for unknown reasons. Despite this, two LAPD patrol officers, Hank Rafferty (Zahn) and his partner Charlie (Timothy Busfield), decide to check it out anyway. As they split up to search the warehouse, someone shoots at Charlie, killing him, before the thieves drive away, leaving Hank in a state of shock.

Earl Montgomery's (Lawrence) lifelong dream is to become a police officer. He passes the entrance exam with flying colors, but his promising performance during training is hampered by his unshakable conviction that all black persons are innocent victims of white racism. For instance: confronted by cardboard cutouts of an armed gang, Earl shoots all of them except the black one, explaining to his incredulous instructor that the black one is obviously an innocent bystander (even with the thug in the cutout wielding a Desert Eagle pistol). Earl is finally expelled from the police academy when he tries an outrageous stunt during a simulated car chase that results in a massive explosion on the obstacle course.

A dispirited Hank crosses paths with Earl when Hank notices Earl trying to get into his car when he finds his keys stuck inside. Suspicious, Hank starts to question Earl, who race-baits Hank to the point of getting himself arrested. As soon as he's cuffed, however, a bumblebee comes along, to which Earl is virulently allergic. Earl panics and Hank tries to swat the bee away with his nightstick. From afar, it looks like Hank, a white cop, is brutalizing a black suspect, a story that Earl eagerly backs up in Court. Disgraced, Hank is dismissed from the police force and convicted of aggravated assault by an all-black jury. He spends six months in prison, almost entirely in voluntary solitary confinement, due to death threats from the black inmates.

After being released from prison, Hank takes a job as a security guard and continues to investigate Charlie's death, despite his lack of access to police information. Noticing an alarm being tripped at a soft drink warehouse, then disabled, Hank notices the similarity with the earlier burglary, and goes to investigate.

Meanwhile, Earl, who happens to be working for the same security company, is on duty at the warehouse, but is taking time off for some role-playing with his girlfriend, Lola (Mari Morrow). When Hank arrives, he interrupts a burglary, and a gunfight erupts with the thugs, during which Hank and Earl cross paths again. Though the thugs get away, Hank recognizes the tattoo of the man who shot Charlie, whose name he learns is Nash (Eric Roberts).

One of the thieves dropped a cellular phone, which leads them to a semi truck rented by the killers. Inside, Hank and Earl find a van, which Hank recognizes from the earlier robbery. In a brief skirmish on a bridge, they drive the van out of the truck but the van falls off the bridge onto a garbage barge. Inside the van are what look like ordinary beer kegs, but Hank has them examined by a friend who works at a foundry, who informs them that the kegs are actually made of an aerospace alloy, which is worth millions.

Hank takes the van and the kegs to the house of his ex-girlfriend, Denise (Robinne Lee). They broke up after Hank was arrested, and, since Earl owes Hank for saving his life during the warehouse shootout, Hank orders Earl to tell Denise the truth about the "assault." However, when Earl sees that Denise is an attractive black woman, he forgets his promise and starts hitting on her, playing the victim again. She throws both of them out of the house, and when Hank asks for an explanation, Earl reveals that he disapproves of interracial dating. Hank is infuriated and points out that for all his talk about racism, it is actually Earl himself who is the racist. During the argument, Hank punches Earl and storms off. Earl runs back to Hank, just as they are both cornered by police, learning that they are wanted as suspects in the bridge shootout. After they manage to escape, Hank realizes that the thieves must have an inside man in the police department.

Tracing the van's owner to an address Hank and Earl stake out the place, but Earl foolishly rushes inside on his own, where he is confronted by Nash. Hank manages to get Earl to safety, but Earl takes a bullet in the leg. Since the police are looking for them, they can't go to a hospital, but instead return to Denise's house. She reluctantly agrees to treat Earl's wound (which is, in fact, little more than a graze). Fortunately for Hank, a bee flies into the house, and Earl runs for cover, making Denise realize that Hank's outlandish story about the "assault" on Earl was actually true and that Earl is, in fact, the racist. She throws Earl out of the house and reconciles with Hank.

Based on something overheard from Nash, they follow him to a meeting at a Yacht Club with Detective Frank McDuff (Colm Feore), the police traitor. Hank and Earl share everything they know with Lt. Washington (Bill Duke), and then pretend to approach McDuff, offering to sell him back the "beer kegs" for a large sum of money. However, Nash gets wind of their plans and takes Washington hostage first.

During the climactic confrontation, Earl and Hank meet with McDuff, Nash and his men near the coast, rescuing Washington and killing or apprehending most of the thugs, including McDuff. During the shootout, Hank saves Earl's life by warning him about a gunman taking aim at him, getting shot himself in the process. Though wounded, Hank takes off after Nash alone and kills him by dropping a crane load onto an unstable slab Nash is standing on, flipping him over a cliff and into the ocean.

In honor of their heroic actions, Hank is reinstated in the LAPD and Earl is admitted to the force, and they are made partners a short time later. While on patrol, Hank sees a suspicious-looking man trying to break into a car, but Earl assures him that the man has just locked himself out, and helps unlock the car. But as the man drives away, the car's real owner screams, and Earl, realizing his mistake, shoots the back tires out. He tells the owner she can "re-procure" her car, at which moment the car blows up, leaving both cops dumbfounded.

Cast

• Martin Lawrence as Earl Montgomery
• Steve Zahn as Hank Rafferty
• Colm Feore as Detective Frank McDuff
• Bill Duke as Lieutenant Washington
• Eric Roberts as Nash
• Timothy Busfield as Charlie Reed
• Robinne Lee as Denise
• Matt McCoy as Robert Barton
• Brett Cullen as Heston
• Mari Morrow as Lola

Music

The main songs are: "Silly" By The Warden, "One of These Days" by Wu-Tang Clan, "95 South" by Cool Ade, "All Good" by De La Soul, and "N.S.E.W" by Disturbing Tha Peace.^{[citation needed]}

Critical reception

The film was poorly received by critics, receiving a rating of 12% on Rotten Tomatoes.^[1]

References

1. ^ "National Security (2003)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/national_security/. Retrieved August 24, 2009. 

External links

• National Security at the Internet Movie Database
• National Security at Rotten Tomatoes
• National Security at Box Office Mojo