The Sunday Times (London)
June 30, 1996, Sunday
A THIN LINE BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE
120 mins, 18
Martin Lawrence’s so-called comedy is little more than a misguided exercise in celluloid narcissism. Lawrence, who wrote, directed, produced and stars in the film, plays a womanising black LA nightclub manager who keeps a harem of besotted fly-girls at his beck and call. Life is a wet dream until he meets Brandi (Lynn Whitfield), a rich, beautiful Harvard graduate who at first spurns his advances, but then succumbs after he shows her who’s boss. When given the inevitable brush-off, she proves to be a castrating psycho out for revenge. Lawrence the writer/director commits a terminal mistake in thinking that there is anything at all charming about Lawrence the actor. His relentless preening and self-satisfied drawl not only sap the film of any potential comedy but also give it a sour taste of self-absorbed misogyny. The only thing worth laughing at here is the notion that a woman such as Brandi would fall for him. There may be a thin line between love and hate, but the boundary separating this film and romantic comedy is as wide as the Gobi desert.
