Toothlessly trite and inundated with a relentlessly chirpy elevator music score, this ghetto-woman-in-the-ritzy-white-suburbs-culture-clash comedy has been sanitized to oblige the same middle-aged white folks that are the butt of most of its jokes. Hammy yet vanilla Steve Martin is an uptight, miserably divorced tax attorney whose life is turned upside down when a woman he'd flirted with on the Internet turns up on his doorstep in the form of prison escapee Queen Latifah--not quite the sophisticated, young white lawyer she'd pretended to be. Screenwriter Jason Filardi concocts some flimsy excuse for Latifah to move in with Martin (so she can bond with his kids and help him chill out) and then s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s the premise to imply that Martin's job and a contract with a haughty client (Joan Plowright) will be in jeopardy if anyone finds out. The paltry plot consists of these two spending all their time trying to hoodwink neighbors and law partners into thinking the loud-and-proud Latifah is a nanny or a maid. A huge success at the box office, this is an optional purchase at best. [Note: Available in either widescreen or full screen versions, DVD extras include audio commentary by director Adam Shankman and writer Jason Filardi, a 16-minute “Breaking Down Bringing Down the House” featurette, a four-minute gag reel, a three-minute “The Godfather of Hop” satirical featurette poking fun at ersatz homeboy and costar Eugene Levy, the music video for Queen Latifah's “Better Than the Rest,” and seven deleted scenes. Bottom line: a decent extras package for one of the year's most popular and most controversial comedies.] (R. Blackwelder)
Bringing Down the House
Touchstone, 105 min., PG-13, VHS: $24.99, DVD: $29.99, Aug. 5 Volume 18, Issue 4
Bringing Down the House
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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