As I perused my alphabetized menu on a flight, this was the first title to jump out at me among those I hadn't seen. I'd had no strong desire to see it, but the fact that it spawned a series, including an entry this year despite Will Smith's decline in marketability, made me think I ought to learn more about it.
Undercover narcs Mike Lowrey (Smith, late in the Fresh Prince era) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are assigned to look into the theft of all the heroin seized by Miami PD. Kingpin Fouchet (Tchéky Karyo) adds bloodshed in an effort to cover his tracks, but witness Julie (Téa Leoni) slips away. Thanks to a departed mutual acquaintance, she trusts Mike and nobody else in the department. He's absent when she calls, so supervisor Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano) insists that Marcus stand in for Mike. For appearance's sake, the two longtime partners end up swapping residences....
This contrived setup is the main reason I knew to call it a comedy. To add to the awkwardness, Marcus is married and Mike is a notorious player. The new arrangement does nothing to relieve the existing marital tension with Theresa (Theresa Randall). And while the boys have been close friends for many years, they were pretty vitriolic toward each other even before the extra source of strain.
Aside from that, what we have is a rather run-of-the-mill buddy cop picture. I found the action fairly predictable, tho director Michael Bay does not include as many explosions as he would later. The somewhat swear-heavy dialog has a few choice lines, especially via improvisation, but not to the same extent I seem to recall in Beverly Hills Cop or Lethal Weapon.
If you're looking for a mix of light and gritty that doesn't challenge your mind, you can do worse. Maybe you just want a rare flick in which both main cops are African American. In any case, I for one have seen enough of the franchise.
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