"I'LL CRACK THAT MUHFUCKIN' DOT" (reviewed by AX)

Ah, the stand-up comedy concert film...a rare and usually always enjoyable time at the movies. I watched EDDIE MURPHY RAW and DELIRIOUS so many times that I can probably do the entire routines on command, no matter where I am, no matter how much sleep or prep time I've had.

When Martin Lawrence's first concert movie YOU SO CRAZY was released in February 1994, it got an NC-17 rating. Luckily I'd turned 17 just a month prior, so I was ready and waiting to laugh my ass off when it hit my local theater. That experience will stay with me forever. The packed audience roared at the former Def Comedy Jam host as he cussed, mugged, and ran through all current topics with his special brand of silly delivery and vocal dynamics. This movie is a classic to me, I like it just as much as either of Eddie Murphy's stand-up movies, perhaps even more.

So how does RUNTELDAT compare with YOU SO CRAZY? Well, it's like comparing Richard Pryor's LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP with the later HERE AND NOW. While the laughs are not as frequent, they are still genuinely hilarious when they do come. Martin doesn't rely on bits as much, he's gotten more into the storytelling aspect of comedy that people like Red Foxx pioneered in their day. It's not so much rapid-fire offensive stuff, it's deeper and more personal.

RUNTELDAT actually begins with a mixture of interviews, media footage of his infamous highway freak-out, and press conferences from when he was in a coma. I was put off by the obviously fake news commentators interlaced throughout the footage (the actors are listed in the end credits), which took away from the credibility and power of what the real footage was supposed to give us. RUNTELDAT is supposed to be a reaction to all the negative press Martin has received since he has become a hollywood star. I appreciate Martin's anger over this, and was personally glad to finally get the truth about what happened to him.

The act itself is a strange mixture. He touches on the subject of the September 11th terrorist attacks, of Martin Luther King's nonviolence, and a couple other observational pieces to get things off to a well-paced start. Then, oddly, he recycles some of his old material from his 1994 album FUNK IT. I didn't mind, because seeing his face while doing the "Cops" bit was incredible. He does a bit about men and women that kind of drags, and is nowhere near as good as the "Crazy Dranged" segment from YOU SO CRAZY, but is still funny at times.

Finally, he gets to the meat of what RUNTELDAT is all about: his well-publicized breakdowns and medical troubles. I always supported Martin...I loved his show and all of his movies. BLUE STREAK and NOTHING TO LOSE are probably my favorites. But I did wonder what the hell was going on. Why was he waving a gun in the middle of traffic? Why did he go into a coma? Why did his MARTIN co-star Tisha Campbell file suit against him?

Two out of the three are answered, with the of humility and hilarity that Richard Pryor himself displayed when talking about his well-known bouts with drugs and subsequent hospitalization from a freebase accident (when Pryor lights a match onstage and says, "What's this? Give up? It's Richard Pryor running down the street", it's brave, comic, and cathartic). Martin's tale of laughing in his hospital bed, only to find he'd shit on himself, elicits both sympathy and laughs in a similar way. You are watching the man heal. As to why the situation with Tisha Campbell isn't touched upon, one can only assume that it was out of respect for the actress.

Overall, RUNTELDAT is a great stand-up concert film to go along with all my favorites. It's one I will definitely be able to quote on command in years to come. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Martin is clearly angry about what the media did to him, the wraparound segment with words like "LIFE" and "HATE" blinking huge across the screen come off as a bit heavy-handed. If the whole act was a confessional, soul-searching piece (like Margaret Cho's I'M THE ONE THAT I WANT), this might have been more appropriate. As it stands, it seems to be a bit much given that most of the show is what you'd expect from Martin as a stand-up act.

In the end, Martin talks about the birth of his child, and about how upset he got when he saw how badly his wife's pussy had been stretched out afterward. "I can't compete with that", he says in mock-tears. It was like a Bill Cosby moment, with a dash of Eddie Murphy. Hey Martin...YOU FUCKIN' GO, BOY!

(8.3.02)