National Security, directed by Dennis Dugan, is a comedy about two private security guards in Los Angeles who work for a company called National Security. The plot involves the pursuit of smugglers, including a crooked cop. However, the two security guards are an unlikely team. Earl Montgomery (played by Martin Lawrence) is booted out of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Academy for attempting a reckless chase as a part of his training. His partner, Hank Rafferty (played by Steve Zahn), begins the film as a police officer whose partner is killed while pursuing smugglers. However, one day Rafferty stops Montgomery, who has locked himself out of his car and is trying to reach the keys through a partially opened window. While Rafferty tries to apprehend Montgomery, a bumblebee suddenly appears. Since Montgomery claims to be highly allergic to beestings, Rafferty uses his baton to try to kill the bee. A third party videotapes Rafferty as he swings his baton, while Montgomery is on the ground out of sight. With the videotape and prevarication by Montgomery as evidence, Rafferty is convicted of police brutality and sentenced to six months in prison, all of which is spent in solitary confinement for fear that black inmates will murder him in the general population. When Rafferty gets out of prison, he becomes a security guard, working for the same firm as Montgomery and assigned to the same warehouse. Eventually, the duo succeeds in stopping the smugglers, including the crooked cop. National Security is not about plot, but rather is primarily a vehicle for Montgomery to put down Rafferty for being a white man, using black victimization rhetoric, while Rafferty is frustrated that it is politically incorrect to berate Montgomery, who is black. Thus, among the themes that are dramatized are police brutality, racial profiling, and interracial dating. Verbally, Montgomery is far more cleve than Rafferty, but his remarks may not be amusing to all filmviewers. Perhaps the biggest laugh and most insightful comment comes when Montgomery tells Rafferty that he is being treated as if he were black because he lost his job, lost his girlfriend, went to prison, and (after his release) is harassed by police. MH