AllMovie

After a string of box-office failures, actor-comedian Martin Lawrence bares his soul -- and tells the stories behind some of his more troubling run-ins with the police, the media, and the movie industry -- in this feature-length stand-up performance film. Interspersing some behind-the-scenes documentary footage with a live recording of his packed-to-the-rafters concert at Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall in January, 2002, Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat returns Lawrence to his roots: broad, bawdy, expletive-laden, slang-influenced monologues. But this time, the comedian's work takes on a personal slant, as he addresses the incident where he brandished a gun in a busy Los Angeles street during the filming of A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996), as well as the severe health problems he suffered just before cameras were ready to roll on what would be one of his biggest successes, Big Momma's House (2000). Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat was produced by MTV Films, the company responsible for bringing 2000's four-man stand-up documentary Original Kings of Comedy to the screen; unlike Lawrence's previous performance film, the unrated You So Crazy, Runteldat was granted a "R" rating by the MPAA.