Summary:

Divorced attorney Peter Sanderson (Steve Martin) makes an Internet date with what he believes to be the girl of his dreams.  But a disheveled Charlene Morton (Queen Latifah) shows up at his door, throwing the beleaguered Peter’s life into chaos.

Steve says:

When one considers what passes for comedy these days, BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE isn’t terrible.  It has a dozen or so good laughs in it, far surpassing the yuck count in most other pale excuses for comedies.  If that is damning with faint praise, that’s the general idea.

Writer Jason Filardi has fashioned a broad comedy in which no one ever really behaves like a living breathing human being.  Everything is in the quest for the joke.  The best of those were in the trailer but still managed to snag decent laughs from an audience that was obviously starved for funny.  However, Filardi has found a way to druge up decades-old racial stereotype-based humor.  He has bullet-proofed the process by having the offensive epithets issue from the mouths of small-minded, bigoted people.  Thus, we are making fun of bigots and not of the race itself.  Still those words are there, as ugly as ever, when I had begun to believe that they might be fading from the American lexicon. Given that the movie was executive produced by Latifah, I guess the stamp of approval was given to this approach. 

I’m one of those uptight white people who bristles at the sound of the word “nigger,” even when it’s being used by one black person to another.  Sure, African Americans did a smart thing when they co-opted this ugly word in an attempt to rob it of its power to hurt them.  The downside, of course, is that the word is being kept alive.

Steve Martin is a funny man and he can wring laughs out of the lamest jokes.  His physicality is always hilarious to watch, such as when he was possessed by the soul of Lily Tomlin in ALL OF ME.  In that sense, he is well served by first-time director Adam Shankman, a choreographer who specializes in staging physical comedy.  At some point, almost everyone in this movie falls down.  God help me, but it’s always funny.

It’s when Shankman is dealing with such other directorial issues as plot, pacing and dialogue that BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE falls apart.

Queen Latifah became a million-dollar player off the strength of her appearances in this film and the blockbuster, CHICAGO.  Latifah makes for a formidable screen presence, even though she seems frequently aware of her own performance rather than immersing herself in the character.

Eugene Levy has come to specialize in playing the nerd who thinks he’s cool.  He brings nothing new to this party because his role isn’t really a departure from a character that was more effective in the two AMERICAN PIE movies.

The fact that BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE led the box office for three straight weeks and has raked in over one hundred million dollars is testimony to just how desperate a war-weary country is for a few laughs.  There are indeed a few here -- but not much else.

On the strength of those precious nuggets of much-needed humor, BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE gets three kernels.

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Patty says:

Well, yeah.  I think, Steve, that you got the point of the movie a lot faster than the script did.   Yo -- buss dis. Now dis film be mostly 'bout up-tight white folk gittin' dere groove on wit Queen Latifah...'cept dat dey still look likes up tight white folk but wit slightly mo rhythm. Sheeit!  Okay, I didn’t pass Ebonics 101, but you get my drift. 

Steve Martin is game, isn’t he?  Nobody plays the consummate white nerdy guy better than Martin.  Watching Martin paired up with the ever voluptuous Queen Latifah is as weird as the concept of watching sex between George Will and Madonna.  The only thing more unlikely was the romantic pairing of Latifah with Eugene Levy.  That, however, was about the only thing that worked in the film.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love Steve Martin.  He’s got the deadpan goofball down to a fine art and he keeps me laughing even when the set-up betrays the punch line two scenes early.   Did I say two scenes?  I could see the ending coming five minutes into the picture.

Martin seemed compelled to overact to compensate for a thin, unbelievable storyline.  He’s a nerd with few redeeming qualities until the third act.  I get it.  I also get that his neglected kids and ex-wife are so enthralled with him that they’d meekly put up with his workaholic lifestyle and never even bat an eye when he takes a slightly chunky black woman into his home and his life, allowing her to rearrange his priorities. Yeah, that happens all da’ time.

I laughed out loud several times during the movie.  There were some absurd, but funny situations that made me giggle.  Unfortunately, none of the actors seemed to have their hearts in their roles and the script was as unremarkable as Burger King French fries -- excuse me, I mean Freedom fries.

See it for those giggles.  We need a few these days. Watching this film beats two hours of those crappy reality shows on prime time any day.  What the hell are the network programmers thinking? Don’t expect art, however.

Two and a half kernels.  (I’m feeling generous)

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