Bringing Down the House

2003 "Everything he needed to know about life, she learned in prison."
5.6| 1h45m| PG-13| en
Details

Uptight lawyer Peter Sanderson wants to dive back into dating after his divorce and has a hard time meeting the right women. He tries online dating and lucks out when he starts chatting with a fellow lawyer. The two agree to meet in the flesh, but the woman he meets — an escaped African-American convict named Charlene — is not what he expected. Peter is freaked out, but Charlene tries to convince him to take her case and prove her innocence. Along the way, she wreaks havoc on his middle-class life as he gets a lesson in learning to lighten up.

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Reviews

Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place
Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!
CommentsXp Best movie ever!
Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
TheBlueHairedLawyer This film's bad reviews seem to be mostly in regards to its racism featured within the story. Although I think the film was trying to poke fun at racists in a satirical way, to be honest it did make me pretty uncomfortable. I mean, of course the character who's a convicted felon in prison HAS to be a black woman, not the lawyer she pretends to be online. Of course most of the rich characters are white, sophisticated and nonchalantly make statements such as "oh my, I thought I heard negro in here!" And that plantation song bit was really special, too. I'm not sure whether to find it weirdly offensive or offensively weird. The film does have some solid acting and genuinely good moments, but a lot of its "jokes" were either annoying, racist, lame or just plain bizarre. I'm a sucker for lawyer films, but there were hardly any redeemable qualities in these characters at all. Martin and Latifah are both first-rate actors and do put in a lot of effort with their roles. It shows a lot on-screen as their characters come to realize that they have a lot more in common than they realize, but sadly they get really overshadowed by the sheer ridiculousness of the surrounding characters and the cliche plot, which has already been done a million times before in one form or another.
SnoopyStyle Peter Sanderson (Steve Martin) is a straight forward tax attorney who still loves his ex-wife Kate (Jean Smart) even though she has a new boytoy in her life. He disappoints his kids once again while courting heiress Virginia Arness (Joan Plowright) as a client. He has an on-line friendship with LawyerGirl but her photo is misleading. Instead of a slim blonde lawyer, she's actually prison escapee Charlene Morton (Queen Latifah) who insists on her innocence. She hounds him until he's willing to help her clear her name. His work friend Howie Rottman (Eugene Levy) helps out and he is infatuated with the streetwise Charlene. Kate's sister Ashley (Missi Pyle) and Peter's neighbor Mrs. Kline (Betty White) suspect something's wrong with the supposed nanny.This is a workable concept of an uptight white guy trying to deal with a black urban woman. It's a broad odd-couple PG-comedy from the 80s. It's not inappropriate enough to be funny. It's not sharp enough to be edgy. It doesn't handle race with enough deft. Steve Martin is playing this slightly dated. The whole thing feels dated. I like Queen Latifah's earthiness. Their chemistry is almost there. This is a small miss. At least, Eugene Levy gets a few inappropriate laughs and Missi Pyle gets into a ridiculous fight with the Queen.
vtooms26 Steve Martin to Me isn't very funny. I've never really got why many consider him to be a Comedy great and have never found myself laughing hysterically to anything hes either done or been in, and this film is no different. As its Queen Latifah and the Supporting cast, Mainly Betty White, Missi Pyle and Joan Plowright create the majority of laughs during the film. Martin plays a lawyer and Latifah Plays a convicted felon, who end up together following a meeting through an online dating site where Latifah pretends to be a fellow lawyer. And so Comedy Ensues (or so they think it does), and after a few laughs we end up with Steve pretending to be from the Hood and involved in a dance off with numerous gang members. This is easily the most excruciating moment of the film as quite frankly clearly knowing there hasn't been a laugh in 30 minutes the filmmakers resort to visual humour that would only amuse you if your either an 8 year old boy or have just sat down to your first movie after your first lobotomy. Despite this the plot is just interesting enough to keep your eyes forward and not wandering up to count the ceiling tiles, and although it does feel very "seen it all before", Latifah's character Charlene shines through and provides enough laughs for this to still be labeled as a comedy. In Summary, Laughs come from everyone but Martin who as the "Comedian" in the film does little to showcase his, to be honest, Overrated talent.
Chrysanthepop This is pretty much another one of those typical culture clash comedies where a streetsmart character meets the classy rich character, there's conflict and then the conflict is resolved and friendship blossoms, then there's another conflict but that too is resolved by the end. The story has been told x number of times. But what makes 'Bringing Down The House' likable is Queen Latifah, Steve Martin and Joan Plowright. These three provide some laugh-out-loud moments some including Martin and Latifah's dance number, Martin dressing and talking 'black', Queen Latifah and Missy Pyle's catfight and doing a break-dance, Plowright's pompous and stuck up character getting stoned, Peter's neighbour catching him and Charlene in a compromising position. The chemistry between Latifah and Martin is convincing and both have a good comic timing. Thus, even though the story has nothing new to offer, the funny moments make 'Bringing Down The House' fun to watch.