Pros: Great acting, lots going on, and some pretty hilarious jokes!
Cons: Some may find the blatant racial slurs offensive (duh).
The Bottom Line: Queen Latifah can act. Steve Martin's got nothing to prove. Bringing Down The House is not a Wallflowers album, nor is it a Talking Heads song.
flamepillar's Full Review: Bringing Down the House
Uh-oh, guy meets girl on the internet. Could it be "You've Got Mail Part 2: Guess Who!" Not hardly.
Bringing Down The House gets that part over with real quickly, and spares you the embarrassment of having to watch a couple of lonely bozos talking to their computer monitors.
As promised in the trailer, Bringing Down The House is an all 21st Century fable of a rich, lonely and recently divorced tax attorney, Peter(Steve Martin) hamming it up in real life (not online) with an escaped prisoner, Charlene (Queen Latifah).
Of course, in the beginning, he is not so eager to invite her into his abode, as he has been under the impression that she were a skinny white woman. Instead she's a rather well-endowed hunk of Hershey heaven. (Dear God don't let me come across as offensive!)
This wouldn't be so bad, except that he's up against stiff competition at his job to land the account of a British conservative billionaire (Joan Plowright) who as it turns out, lived in Athens, Georgia. I used to live there! Not that you should care, but I thought it was cool.
All his attempts to keep Charlene at bay don't do much good; he comes home the next afternoon to the phattest shindig you've ever seen, and his endeavor to disarm the dope only gets him tossed in the pool. Next thing you know, Charlene is showing up where he works, and pretty much everywhere else. Finally, an ultimatum is reached in which Charlene will pose as Peter's nanny and Peter will help to re-open her case, since she insists I did the time, but I didn't do the crime.
That's just the beginning.
You might call this Steve Martin's comeback, but I don't know of a time that the guy ever faltered in his brilliance to the point that such a term would even be warranted. From The Jerk back in '79 to Parenthood to Housesitter to Bowfinger in '99, he's been a reliable hitmaker, predominantly in the comedy genre where he seems to shine the most. It seems he has a bit of experience in Peter's role; he really "lives" this role out, showing off his knowledge of the smallest nuances of Peter's life and executing them with the closest thing to instinct that an actor could possibly conjure. Trying to comb over his hair so that it looks like he actually has some, pulling a sweater over his head without letting it touch his hair, screaming into a pillow, or just plain going haywire.
If you had told me one year ago that I'd be watching a movie with Queen Latifah in it, I probably would have laughed and said "Yeah, right, and I'm going to buy a rap record!" And now look at this, I've done both. (If you must know, it's Talib Kweli. He's not too bad!) Well I could tell by the trailers alone that the Queen had at least some talent. After seeing the movie, I'd have to say she's fabuloso! She comes across perfectly naturally as Charlene, the girl who don't take no crap from nobody. But this is not to say she is incapable of showing a sensitive or sarcastic side as well. Peter asks her once, "Why do you have to walk and talk like that?" and Charlene shows him how good she is at being "white". Talk about a transformation! But her point is, you be who you are, since when is that a crime? One thing that I totally wasn't expecting was the fight that occurs between Charlene and some annoying rich borderline-bulimic white chick (Missi Pyle). And this ain't some clean-cut Matrix/Crouching Tiger fight, this is a total brawl, man do they ever beat the crap out of each other! I just about tossed my cookies, I was laughing so hard.
I was actually hoping to see more of Eugene Levy. He takes on the role of Howie, Peter's partner, who becomes smitten with Charlene upon first glance. Not one to hide a hidden talent, Eugene breaks out with a startling expertise at communicating in "ebonics". Too bad he's not around more. I'd be surprised if his script alone accounted for more than three or four pages. He gets a pretty neat surprise from Charlene at the end that's worth sticking around for.
I haven't seen much of Joan Plowright before, but she's been in the movie biz for a while too, all the way back to 1954 when she starred in The Comedy of Errors. She's not doing much here except playing a typically rich snob, Mrs. Arness, who towards the end, (not too hard to see this one coming) bongs it up in a bar full of bone thugs 'n harmony.
Meanwhile, Jean Smart takes the "plain in a very gorgeous way" look and shows what a master she is at the craft. Don't know much about history when it comes to her either. She plays Peter's recently separated wife Kate, ever the fatigued individual. The story of her and Peter's reuniting kind of fades behind all the hoopla going on between Peter, Howie, Charlene and Mrs. Arness, but for what little you see of it, it's really quite sweet.
Kimberly J. Brown and Angus T. Jones play the two kids, Sarah and Georgey (respectively, but I would hope so). For her age, Kimberly is pretty darn gorgeous! She's like the girl in American Beauty without all the egomaniacal attitude. Angus will be forever remembered as the "What's a rack?" kid, but there's plenty more to witness in his dead-on portrayal of a kid who just can't seem to get the rack kneading... er, knack of reading. Poor soul.
So as you might have guessed...
There are a lot of different things going on in Bringing Down The House. It gets to a point where you're like "Okay, so did Charlene do it or did she not?" The only reason to believe one way or the other for the first hour is Charlene's insistence that she didn't do it. Otherwise, nothing really comes up about it until pretty late in the movie. Fortunately, it turns out that that is one of the less interesting plotlines going on, and by the time they do develop it, they actually do something good with it, smoothly retaining the comedic factor all the while.
Is it worth the money? Absolutely. Is it worth the money if you're down to $25.00, the gas tank's on 1/4, and payday's not for another four days? Probably not. Don't go out of your way for it, but don't miss it if you're interested!
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The hilarious Steve Martin (Father Of The Bride) and Academy Award-nominee Queen Latifah (Best Supporting Actress, 2002, Chicago) star with Eugene Lev...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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