Martin Lawrence’s 10 Best Movies and TV Shows

The best Martinho Lourenço movies and TV shows started thanks to his television roles, but he got his first big break thanks to Spike Lee. Although he was mainly involved with boxing when he was in school, he started working as a comedian when he left school and started earning life working in stand-up shows. This led Martin to move to New York City and join The Improv, which landed him a role in Star search. This was his real big break as it got him noticed in Hollywood.

This earned him the attention of Spike Lee, who gave Lawrence his first film role in the award-winning Do the right thing. After that, he got roles in films like Party at home and Boomerangand he finally got his own lead role when he signed on to star in the sitcom Martin. This is what helped him become a top star. Moving between action movies like Bad Boys and comedies like Big Mom’s HouseLawrence has proven his status as one of cinema’s best funnymen.

10

Big Momma’s House (2000)

Martin Lawrence plays Malcolm Turner/Big Momma

Big Mom’s House was a Martin Lawrence vehicle that seemed to find a large fan base when it came to audiences, but received terrible reviews from critics. The film mixed what Eddie Murphy did in the 80s and 90s with what Tyler Perry would do a few years later with his Madea films. Lawrence stars as an FBI agent assigned to capture an escaped convict. so he disguises himself as Hattie Mae Pierce, an elderly African-American woman and the grandmother of one of the convict’s targets.

The humor comes from Lawrence in the prosthetic body pretending to be the elderly woman, and that’s where she easily lost the review. It ended up with a poor 30% score on Rotten Tomatoes, but ended up making $174 million on a $30 million budget (via Mojo Box Office) and was popular enough with mainstream audiences to allow it to continue with two sequels, both with Lawrence returning to the role but with a more light-hearted comedic plot.

9

Life (1999)

Martin Lawrence plays Claude Banks

Ted Demme (The reference, Blow) directed a team of Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence in the comedy-drama Life in 1999. The film was narrated by an elderly inmate about two of his friends who are both wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. These friends are Ray (Murphy) and Claude (Lawrence), and the two men must figure out how they will adapt to life behind bars with real criminals and survive to face another day.

The film was a disappointment when it was released and ended up being a box office failure. However, it has since become a cult classic, especially among Murphy and Lawrence fans, and is considered one of their best films. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics when it was released, with Lawrence and Murphy receiving praise for their performances. Rick Baker was also nominated for an Oscar for his makeup work in making the two actors age throughout the film.

8

Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024)

Martin Lawrence plays Detective Marcus Burnett

Martin Lawrence and Will Smith appeared in four Bad Boys films throughout their careers, with the last one coming out in 2024. This film, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, the two are in a very different situation, as his beloved captain (Joe Pantoliano) dies and is accused of crimes he never committed. It turns out that there is corruption in the Miami police and soon Mike and Marcus also end up incriminated and have to escape from the police while trying to clear their names.

While the film is still a non-stop thrill ride, it falls short of the first three films in the franchise, although it does bring together some good stories for the franchise, including one with Mike’s son who he met in the previous film. It turned out to be a commercial success with one of the best box office returns of 2024, while also receiving mixed to positive reviews from critics.

7

Death at a Funeral (2010)

Martin Lawrence plays Ryan Barnes

In 2010, Neil LaBute remade the 2007 British comedy film Death at a funeral. He transposed the comedy of the British family mourning the death of a loved one to a black family doing the same. As in the original film, the funeral ends up being a major source of controversy thanks to a confusion of misfortunes and a very dangerous unwanted guest who has incriminating photos of the deceased and wants a reward to make them disappear.

The cast is what took the film to the comedic heights it reached. In addition to Martin Lawrence as the deceased’s more successful son, Chris Rock stars as his less successful younger brother. Other cast members include Danny Glover, Loretta Devine, Keith David, Regina Hall, Zoe Saldana, Tracy Morgan, James Marsden and Luke Wilson. The film was only a minor box office success, with mixed reviews from critics.

6

Bad Boys (1995)

Martin Lawrence plays Detective Marcus Burnett

Michael Bay directed the first Bad Boys film, where he introduced the world to Mike Lowry (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), two longtime friends who are Miami narcotics detectives. The two detectives are involved in a case investigating $100 million worth of stolen heroin packages.. This leads them to pursue an international drug lord who is targeting a woman who witnessed a murder (Téa Leoni).

Unlike many of Lawrence’s action films of the 1990s, this was not a comedy, but a pure action film with witty dialogue providing some laughs. It was also, as is expected from Bay films, full of explosions, car chases and shootouts. Bad Boys It was a decent box office success thanks to Bay’s lower-than-usual budget and spawned a franchise that has included four films to date.

5

Bad Boys For Life (2020)

Martin Lawrence plays Detective Marcus Burnett

THE Bad Boys the franchise returned in 2020, 17 years after the second film, with the widow of Johnny Tapia (who Mike and Marcus took down in Bad Boys II) in search of revenge. The problem is that Mike and Isabel (the widow) had an affair when he was undercover, taking down her husband, and this leads to a huge twist that turns the film on its head and sets up the sequel that arrived four years later.

When released, Bad boys for life it ended up being the highest-grossing film in the franchise at the time (a record that still stands), with $424 million. Critics also praised it with a 76% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Smith and Lawrence returning to their roles. Smith as the cool, bold cop and Lawrence as the more reserved, caring cop with a family at home he knows he needs to take care. The film won the NAACP Image Award for Best Picture.

4

House Party (1990)

Martin Lawrence plays Bilal

In 1990, Martin Lawrence was part of the cast of the film Kid ‘n Play Party at home. The project was written and directed by Reginald Hudlin based on his award-winning student short film he made while at Harvard. The film is, as the title suggests, about a house party thrown by Peter (Play), and how his friend Christopher (Kid) has to sneak out of the house to attend after his father punished him.

Party at home then follows Kid and his misadventures as he tries to get to the party while local bullies try to make him pay after an earlier fight. Martin Lawrence has one of the main roles as Bilal, who is expected to be the party’s DJ and is there to spin the music that plays on the soundtrack. The film has also been praised as culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant with its inclusion in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2022.

3

Bad Boys II (2003)

Martin Lawrence plays Detective Marcus Burnett

The second film of Bad Boys the franchise remains the best. After Mike and Marcus took down an international drug ring in the first film, this one saw them teaming up to once again find the source of the illegal drugs coming into Miami and put a stop to it. The two were now solidly in their roles, with Smith as the self-assured cop who would do anything to stop a bad guy and Lawrence as his longtime friend wanting to be more careful to live to fight another day.

These films showed why Martin Lawrence has been given a solid batch of action films to star in for nearly a decadealthough it was difficult to come close to the brightness of the Bad Boys franchise. The film was louder, with more explosions and gunfights than the first film, and proved to be a successful franchise. However, it took 17 years for the two actors to reunite for the third film in the series.

2

Martinho (1992-1997)

Martin Lawrence plays Martin Payne

Martin Lawrence was one of the top stand-up artists in the early 1990s, but he failed to understand In living colors or Saturday night live at the moment. But it was better this way, because he got something even better. Lawrence led his own sitcom that aired on Fox from 1992 to 1997. In MartinLawrence stars as Martin Payne, a disc jockey at a local radio station in Detroit who lives with his girlfriend Gina (Tisha Campbell).

In later seasons, he became a talk show host, but despite everything, Martin It remained one of the most successful comedies on TV in the ’90s. It ended up lasting five seasons and 132 episodes before ending. Throughout its execution, Martin received 12 NAACP Image Award nominationswith Martin Lawrence winning Best Lead Actor in 1995 and 1995 and the show winning Best Comedy Series in 1994 and 1995.

1

Do the Right Thing (1989)

Martin Lawrence plays Cee

Martin Lawrence made his film debut in the best film he has ever appeared in in his career. In 1989, Lawrence starred in Spike Lee’s film Do the right thing. The joint film follows the lives of people who live in a Brooklyn neighborhood who experience deadly racial tensions between the neighborhood’s black residents and the owner of the Italian-American pizzeria. It all happens during an extremely hot summer day and ends in tragedy.

Lee himself stars as Mookie, a delivery man who works at a pizzeria owned by Sal (Danny Aiello). Martin Lawrence is one of the people who lives in the neighborhood and has the very important role of introducing Radio Raheem to viewers. (Bill Nunn), the tragic member of the cast of characters. Spike Lee was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay, while Danny Aiello received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The film was added to the National Film Registry in 1999.