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Grade: C+

Verdict: Gives fans what they want in a barrage of four-letter words.

Details: Starring Martin Lawrence. Rated R for strong crude sexual dialogue and strong language. One hour, 44 minutes.

See it: Local theaters and showtimes for Runteldat

Rate it: Write your own review

Review: The trailers for "Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat" suggest that the comedian at last bares his soul about the personal difficulties he's had since his last concert film, the enormously successful "You So Crazy" in 1994.

That's not exactly what happens.

Lawrence touches on how he was found armed and screaming in a Los Angeles intersection in 1996, how he was arrested at a club a year later, and how he collapsed while jogging two years after that.

But he only revisits that history long after he's trashed his critics ("They're like the scum of the Earth to me"), praised America ("This is the best country in the world") and spouted about his spirituality ("I can honestly say I'm blessed").

He only offers some of the details of the trouble he's run into. And while he makes no apologies, at age 37 he seems to have been tempered a bit since "You So Crazy" — a movie so raunchy it drew the dreaded NC-17 rating and the displeasure of Miramax, which promptly dropped it.

So if you're looking for the dirty details, look elsewhere. If you're looking for dirty talk, you've come to the right place.

Lawrence gives his fans what they want during the concert, filmed in January in Washington, D.C. The former "Def Comedy Jam" host still displays a tremendous gift for physical humor — he does more from the neck up than most comedians can do with their entire bodies — and he still puts on a wide variety of voices and sprints around the stage.

He's at his strongest when he sticks to the topics that originally made his standup routine so funny: dating, sex, marriage, children.

He's weaker when he takes on serious issues: Osama bin Laden, fear of flying, the civil rights movement, police brutality.

Despite displaying a softer side, Lawrence still has a potty mouth. And while a barrage of four- and 12-letter words is requisite in this setting, he uses them so much, they almost become a crutch, a distraction.

"Runteldat" — an abbreviated way of saying "run and tell that," and the name of Lawrence's entertainment company — also takes a while for the energy to build. Director David Raynr begins with a montage of clips from Lawrence's movies, including "Bad Boys," "Big Momma's House" and "Blue Streak," and his sitcom, "Martin." Mixed in between are news reports about his various setbacks.

About an hour passes before Lawrence addresses the subject of his troubled past, which began with a 1996 incident in which police found him, armed and disoriented, in the middle of a busy Los Angeles intersection.

The Associated Press reported back then that, according to his doctor, Lawrence had suffered a seizure after failing to take prescribed medication. He admits he took something that day that he got from "the dopeman," though he doesn't specify what the drug was. He's also forthright about the fact that he was carrying a gun.

And that arrest at a club in 1997? Some guy bumped into him while he was dancing, he says. Then a bunch of cops showed up with shotguns and took him away.

Lawrence also talks briefly about how he collapsed while jogging in 100-degree weather in August 1999, and was brought to a hospital with a temperature of 107 degrees. He speaks solemnly about how he almost died, and had to learn to walk and talk again.

"One thing I truly learned," he said. "We fall down, but we get back up again."

Appreciative applause. Then he segues back into: "I love sex."

— Christy Lemire, The Associated Press