Bringing Down the House (2003)

Grade: C+ Steve Martin may have hosted the Oscars this year, but his real achievement was his first major hit in years, Bringing Down the House. The movie also brings in other audiences as Queen Latifah and Eugene Levy co-star. Bringing Down the House features Martin as a stuck-up white guy who is trying to find some love by hooking up with a woman he met over the Internet. His vision of a slender blonde lawyer turns out to be an escaped felon who looks a lot like Queen Latifah, and, surrounded by an enormous amount of racist rich people, tries to hide her existence every chance he gets. However, as time goes on, he learns that she may be the best thing that ever happened to him, as his kids (and ex-wife) start to like him much more. Bringing Down the House has its moments, but for the most part the movie is a little lackluster. There are very few genuinely funny scenes, and the rest is just bland. Luckily, there is only one really bad scene, and that is the sequence where Latifah dukes it out with that bitchy woman. Not only is this the most unrealistic fight sequence ever recorded on film, but it has absolutely nothing to do with anything. Still, the rest of the movie is nothing to scream about, either in the positive or negative. It is entertaining enough to fulfill Steve Martin fans, but has no overwhelmingly redeeming value. Bringing Down the House is nothing special, but could have been a lot worse. Read the full movie review