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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Walt Disney Video
Salesrank: 8161
Released: August 5, 2003 |
| Our Price: $8.68 |
| Used Price: $0.47 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The hilarious Steve Martin (FATHER OF THE BRIDE) and Academy Award(R)-nominee Queen Latifah (Best Supporting Actress, 2002, CHICAGO) star with Eugene Levy (AMERICAN PIE) in the laugh-out-loud hit comedy BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE. Peter Sanderson (Martin), a divorced, straitlaced, uptight workaholic attorney, meets a brainy bombshell lawyer in an on-line chat room and they make a date. Expecting his soul mate, he opens the door and finds himself face-to-face with Charlene (Latifah) -- a wild and crazy soul "sister" who's just escaped from prison and wants Peter to clear her name. But Peter wants absolutely nothing to do with her, and that prompts Charlene to turn Peter's perfectly ordered life totally upside down. Hysterical complications abound and Peter soon finds out he may need Charlene just as much as she needs him. It's a houseful of fun your family will enjoy again and again.
Description of Bringing Down The House (Full Screen Edition):
The pleasingly contrasting comic styles of Queen Latifah and Steve Martin bring some energy to Bringing Down the House, a hopelessly formulaic comedy. Martin plays Peter, an uptight lawyer too obsessed with work to spend quality time with his kids. Into his life comes Queen Latifah as Charlene, an escaped convict who threatens to wreck his relationship with a wealthy but arch-conservative client (Joan Plowright, in high dudgeon) if Peter won't take up her case. Of course, Latifah's exuberant ways enchant his kids and bring out a looser, livelier side of Peter, all in a series of scenes so standard they hardly register. Thank goodness for Eugene Levy; as one of Peter's law partners with a taste for Charlene's bodacious brand of sexy, Levy's ingenious transformation from nebbish to loverman is the movie's secret weapon, stealthily planting comic explosions amidst the modest rice-krispie-crackle of the stale plot. --Bret Fetzer
Bringing Down The House (Full Screen Edition) Reviews:
very satisfied 
2009-08-16 - The DVD arrived in rapid time and was in great shape. We watched it and it is just what we hoped for.
Excellent!
2009-07-01 - Seller was easy to work with and promptly got me the DVD I ordered in excellent condition. Thanks!
One of the best comedies
2009-04-22 - This is one of the best comedies of all time.
Queen Latifa and Steve Martin are a great combination.
Everyrhing Queen Latifa does is classy, and Steve Martin is Steve Martin.
Not Happy 
2009-04-13 - I have not been able to get this video to work. I am going to return it if I cannot get it to run. 1st time not satisfied with a purchase I have made through Amazon. Hopefully it will be my last one.
William Shakespeare (the dog) steals the show
2009-03-29 - Going into this nonsense I already knew that Latifah was going to do the stereotypical black thang, Steve Martin was going to be a stereotypical WASP, and painfully corny to the point that it would be comparable to kidney stones. What I didn't know, however, was that it would be a blatant rip-off of You've Got Mail, with Martin failing to fill Tom Hanks' shoes, Latifah (I refuse to call her a queen) playing the equivalent of two Meg Ryans, and some of the most painful scenes ever caught on film.
In case you can't see it coming, there's a decent chance that Latifah and Martin will dance together and she'll either teach him or disapprove of his spastic, uncoordinated, rehashed and unfunny King Tut act. But I won't "ruin it" for you. Oh, and you guessed it, the older white guys - which includes the lamest person in history: Eugene Levy - all make feeble attempts at ebonics that cause ever-increasing groans and cringes with each ignorant usage. There has never been a more out of touch combo in history. In fact, I'd say neither has EVER been hip.
It's truly baffling to me how anyone could convince so many black people to be in such a racially stereotypical movie. After this movie, I'm convinced that "The Man" does exist, and he's a producer in Hollywood attempting to perpetuate the racial divide. To be honest, I'd swear that Steve Martin is complicit, because between him and Levy, they've taken back racial understanding roughly 10-20 years. And it's not the content; it's just the method of delivery. They really wish they could crassly deliver the stereotypically racist lines, but they fail with each attempt. I tried to count each instance, but I forgot to watch the movie while holding an abacus.
The best possible way I can summarize this movie would be to say that I had a post-movie headache from constantly rolling my eyes at the bad jokes, poor timing, atrocious site gags, and aforementioned ridiculous racial content. If it weren't for the hilarious English Bulldog named William Shakespeare, this movie would be unbearable, dawg.
