Martin Lawrence as usual in 'National Security'

If you don't count the comic shenanigans of "National Security," 2003 could be a pretty good year for Martin Lawrence. Big-budget sequels to two other cops-and-robbers movies that pushed his career upward awhile back — "Bad Boys" and "Blue Streak" — are scheduled for summer release. Even his fans may forget this boneheaded throwaway by then.

Lawrence plays Earl Montgomery, a wannabe cop who only has the stuff to make it as a rent-a-cop. The other half of "National Security's" buddy team is Hank (Steve Zahn), a real cop who has the misfortune of meeting Earl just yards away from a bystander with a video camera.

In one of the movie's few winning moments, Hank uses nightstick, fists and boots to shoo an angry bee away from the dangerously allergic Earl, but all the video camera sees is another episode of LAPD brutality. With the "beating" clip all over the 5 o'clock news and Earl sticking to his story of racist assault, poor Hank winds up off the force and in jail.

Six months later, the ex-cop as ex-con joins the ranks of National Security Inc., the same outfit that employs Hank's nemesis as a night watchman. D'oh! Sparks, wacky high-jinks and hails of bullets fly as Hank and Earl reluctantly team up to track down murderous smugglers and dirty cops — or something. When the bad guys' booty turns out to be empty beer kegs, it's sort of hard to pay much attention.

Director Dennis Dugan (whose triumphs of juvenilia include "Saving Silverman," "Big Daddy" and "Happy Gilmore") comes from a bland TV background that he ably re-creates in blocky, perfunctory action set pieces.

At least six vehicles get identical slow-motion camera treatment as they're captured sailing through air or through walls made of various breakable materials. And on the exploding fireball meter, "National Security" rates only a three.

As usual, Martin Lawrence is playing a version of the fast-trash-talking character he always does — which is not necessarily a bad thing. His trademark rubbery vocal riffs and slightly cross-eyed leer lend an appropriately arrogant swagger to a man who sees nothing but racial oppression from the white world. Unfortunately, it's a one-joke shtick that barely keeps the buddy theme alive.

As for the buddy, a chunky Zahn looks pained and uncomfortable under a hideous brush-cut and porcupine-bristle mustache. Zahn has delivered excellent comic performances in movies like "Happy, Texas" and "Out of Sight," but he gets a raw deal playing hard-nosed straight man to Lawrence.

A couple other interesting faces turn up amongst the implausible goings-on, including straight-to-video superstar Eric Roberts, who has a fine time flaunting his own outrageous coif as the gun-crazy villain. An all-too-brief scene featuring Joe Flaherty of "SCTV" fame as National Security's bumbling chief only hints at a "National Security" that might have been.

Ted Fry: tedfry@earthlink.net.