“Bringing Down the House” (Touchstone Pictures)
“Bringing Down the House” is a new comedy which stars the “wild and crazy” Steve Martin, and the sultry and surprisingly funny Queen Latifah. This is an odd duo for a movie but the two stars play well off each other and give the movie some of their personal magic. Sadly the contrived script and lame comedy situations brings it all down to the level of just ordinary and not superb.
Martin plays uptight attorney Peter Sanderson. He is divorced from his wife (Jean Smart) and is grieving for her and his two kids. Still he does seek out female company while surfing the Internet. There he hooks up with a woman named Charlene who is in the “Lawyers Chat Room.” He invites her over for a drink and is shocked when the Charlene (Latifah) ringing his doorbell turns out to be a bodacious black beauty and not the svelte blonde honey he was expecting.
Inexplicably Charlene talks Peter into taking her case. She is an escaped convict but never seems to have any trouble moving around in the open. She does raise the bigoted instincts of Peter’s neighbor Mrs. Kline (Betty White) and those of his top client Mrs. Arness (Joan Plowright).
The racial jokes and bigoted attitudes of so many of the players in the movie make it an uncomfortable comedy at best, and a repulsive one at worst. When Charlene starts having to resort to stereotypes in order to keep things calm, the movie goes down the tubes.
Martin has his moments as the dismayed Peter, but it is all pure Martin schtick we have seen before. Its funny but it isn’t FUNNY! Latifah is better than expected in the comedy department. She has some moments of pure hilarity. Unfortunately most of them were seen in the trailer for the film. There are no new scenes which equal the fun shown in the previews.
Eugene Levy steals the show as one of Peter’s associates who develops a thing for Charlene. He is naturally endearing and is the film favorite. Jean Smart is wasted as the wife but Missi Pyle does have some good scenes as Peter’s ex-sister-in-law.
The movie is rated PG-13 for profanity and some crude racial humor.
There is some fun to be had while watching “Bringing Down the House” but it isn’t the good time you expect. With a better script and less racial humor the movie could have “brought down the house.”
I scored “Bringing Down the House” an elevated 5 out of 10.
©2003 Jackie K. Cooper
