Cam's Connection

Bringing Down The House Movie Review Originally published in Brand New Planet. 3 STARS Bringing Down The House is a silly comedy that is guaranteed to make you smile. It’s about a lonely divorced lawyer named Peter Sanderson, played by Steve Martin, who has been chatting online with a girl he thinks is a smart, beautiful and successful attorney. He arranges to meet her, and when she arrives at his house for their first date, he gets the shock of a lifetime. Let this be a lesson to anyone who believes everything a stranger tells them over the internet. His cyber date turns out to be an escaped convict who’s looking for his legal expertise to help prove she’s innocent. Needless to say, Peter is just a little bit surprised when Queen Latifah’s character Charlene turns up on his doorstep. He was expecting a petite blonde, and with Charlene in the house he ended up with far more than he bargained for. In my opinion, some of the things that you were supposed to find funny fell flat. An old, rich woman who Peter’s law firm is trying to get as a client was very racist and some of the things she said would probably make a lot of people uncomfortable. And when Charlene got angry at her and pretended to brandish a carving knife at her, it wasn’t very amusing. Eugene Levy is normally a really funny actor with great potential to liven up a movie with small cameos. But in this movie, his role as one of Peter’s colleagues wasn’t up to his usual standard. At the end of the movie, things seemed to fall into place to make a happy ending a little too easily. All of the problems were magically resolved, and some things weren’t even explained very clearly. In once scene, Peter’s son was having a lot of trouble with words and Charlene helps him. Suddenly he’s magically able to read fairly well and no one explains how Charlene has managed to do this. The movie did have some high points too, though. The way Charlene and Peter interacted was always comical because half the time, Peter wasn’t quite sure what she was saying. The movie also made fun of stereotypes (which could be a touchy issue) a lot, like when Peter dressed up in “ghetto” clothes and went to a dance club he would normally never go near. Peter’s ex-wife’s sister was great as well. In one scene she gets in a fight with Charlene after insulting her and it almost seems like a kung fu movie. Overall, this movie was quite funny and had a few good laughs, but it wasn’t constant hilarity or a string clever jokes one after another. Compared to some of Steve Martin’s other brilliant movies, like “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and “All of Me” – which I encourage everyone to rent – Bringing Down The House pales in comparison. Even though it was a pretty average film, I still think most moviegoers would enjoy it.