Lawrence plays Miles, a jewel thief who tries to retrieve a diamond he left at a police station, whereupon he disguises himself as a detective and gets paired with a real policeman to investigate burglaries.

Blue Streak was released theatrically by Columbia Pictures on September 17, 1999 and opened as the number one movie in North America.

Jewel thief Miles Logan participates in a $17 million diamond heist in LA with his crew: his right hand and best friend Eddie, getaway driver Tulley, and Deacon, a newly acquired member of the group.

Deacon turns on them, killing Eddie by shooting him off of a tall building and causing him to fall onto a police car, before attempting to take the stone from Miles.

Miles returns disguised as a pizza deliveryman, steals an access card and visits his forger Uncle Lou.

Miles' knowledge on criminal activity and ability to foil crimes makes him quite popular among his "peers,” even getting promoted to detective in charge of the Robbery/Homicide division.

The critical consensus reads: "Martin Lawrence lends his comedic touch, but the movie isn't much more than standard action-comedy fare.

[6] Gene Seymour of the Los Angeles Times described the film by saying that "it starts out like a caper flick that shifts, almost by accident, into an episode from the old Martin TV series [until] eventually, it settles for being a bleached, cluttered photostat of Beverly Hills Cop, if only a bit more clever than the original.

"[7] Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times also compared the film to Beverly Hills Cop, and stated that "in this instance, the buoyancy is only intermittent."

[8] Roger Ebert praised the film, giving it 3 stars out of 4 and writing: "Martin Lawrence is a comic actor with real talent, not always shown to best advantage.

[14] The 2002 Hindi film Chor Machaaye Shor starring Bobby Deol was an unauthorized remake of Blue Streak.