National Security

Police officer Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) and his partner stumble across a burglary one night while on patrol. Their attempt to stop the burglars ends in a shoot-out and Hank witness his partner get killed, without being able to intervene. The bad guys get away and Hank gets denied his request to help with the investigation of his partner's murderer. Sometime later the depressed Hank is out on patrol again where he witness what he thinks could be a car thief at work. The alleged car thief is Earl Montgomery (Martin Lawrence), a wannabe cop who, after having been thrown out of the police academy, now works as a security guard. The car is Earl's, but he gets into an altercation with Hank, accusing him of being a racist, ending with Hank being wrongfully accused of police brutality. Hank is fired from the force and sentenced to six months in jail and when he gets out his only option is to also become a security guard.

Hank tries to find the guys who killed his partner on his own and one night, while out driving, he hears a call on the police radio which leads him to believe that the same gang is at work again. Arriving at the scene of the crime he gets into a shoot-out with the criminals and as luck would have it he runs into Earl who is ineptly guarding the warehouse. The two must now, with a lot of difficulty, put their differences aside and help each other catch the burglars. Things only get more complicated, when they learn that the bad guys may have a contact inside the police force and they are suddenly wanted by the law.

While this movie has both, it is perhaps a little more action than comedy. It has its funny moments and the somewhat toned down (compared to some of his more crazy movies) Lawrence is a good match for Zahn's comedy. There were no laugh-out-loud moments for me, but the chuckles combined with the relatively fast-paced action kept me entertained. There is nothing new in the set-up which has been done before (and better) in movies like 48 Hours but that does not make this a bad movie.

National Security is presented in 1080p/AVC with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The picture quality is reasonably good and shows some nice details and colours are vibrant and lifelike. There are, however, several issues with the transfer that makes it less than stellar. Blacks are fairly deep and do not suffer from too much noise, but they tend to be a little crushed and darker tones lack detail and suffer from slight banding. The image is quite soft at times and there is a lack of depth or dimensionality in many shots, but the natural film grain of the movie is preserved and I did not notice any excessive use of DNR or edge enhancement.

This is not a release you would want to use to show of the virtues of Blu-ray video quality, but it is still a decent transfer and quite a bit better than the DVD version.

Audio on this release comes in an English 5.1 TrueHD lossless track which is okay, but not overwhelming. The soundscape is fairly clear and without distortions, but it is very front heavy. Only during action scenes or while the musical score is playing does the rear speakers and subwoofer get any real use. During other scenes they are mostly silent and they are rarely used for ambient noise. The rear speakers do get used well during shoot outs, where ricocheting bullets fly around you with good directional effect, but the subwoofer is never tested thoroughly, even by the big explosions, making this track a bit flat and boring. The dialogue, on the other hand, is always clear and is never overwhelmed by other sounds.

I did not expect very much from this track and I got what I expected, but I doubt this sounds any better or worse than when the movie played in theatres.

All extras on this release are in standard definition (480p/MPEG-2) with 2.0 Dolby Digital audio, except for the trailers, which are 1080p.

Deleted Scenes - (15:36 minutes) These two clips are not really deleted scenes, but more explanations of scenes that are in the movie. The first, which is most of the fifteen minutes, is a scene where the script is compared with Martin Lawrence's improvisation by first showing the script as text and then playing an uncut version of the actual scene. The other "deleted scene" is a 30 second demonstration of a special lens used. Neither of these clips is worth the time it takes to watch them.
Alternate Ending - () A different, more humorous, take on the last few minutes of the movie. I personally preferred the ending that was included in the movie.
Music Video - () "N.S.E.W" by Disturbing the Peace.
Director Commentary - Audio commentary by Director Dennis Dugan. As commentaries go, this is not among the better ones. Dugan is rather dry to listen to and a bit too self serving. He does give some insights into the making of the movie, but not enough to justify spending the length of the movie listening.
Trailers - Hancock, Men in Black, and 21.

This is not the most comprehensive set of extras ever seen, but it is more or less what you could expect from a release like this. It would have helped with a few more deleted scenes or if the two lead actors had participated on the commentary, but unfortunately this is what we get.

As the numbers show, this was a kind of average, or slightly below, release in all areas. The movie was fairly funny and entertaining, but not very original or memorable; the video was pretty good although it had its faults; the audio was okay, but lacked any real power or subtleties and the extras were more or less what could be expected from a catalogue release of a action/comedy, but not nearly enough to wet my appetite. I cannot really recommend this as a buy, particularly if you already own the DVD, but it is good for a couple of laughs and if you like the genre it is worth a rent.