Extras:
Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentary, Gag Reel, Behind-the-Scenes,
Music Video, Eugene Levy Featurette.
Director:
Adam Shankman
Screenplay:
Jason Filardi
Cast:
Peter: Steve Martin
Charlene: Queen Latifah
Howie: Eugene Levy
Gendler: Michael Rosenbaum
It's a scary world we live in.
I mean that's the only way to explain
how disasters like this get filmed or even greenlit to begin with. We
live in a world where average garbage like this can become a superstar
while an action film that delivers on all levels, like
Terminator 3
barely makes what this made. Bringing Down the House did just that, it
brought it an estimated $130 million domestically, costing only $30
million to create. Terminator 3 for instance looks to possibly break
$150 million only if it's lucky. In my opinion a film like that deserved
much more since it delivered everything an audince could desire, action,
adventure, mild romance (not too much to gag you per se), badass
coolness, and much more.
Now we have this TV movie that somehow passed as a theatrical feature. I
tell ya, when I was watching this I seriously thought I had just met Doc
Brown and had somehow transported back to 1985. Because that's what year
it feels like when you remind yourself that this turd was filmmed just
last year. This film seriously feels like a piece of 80s cheese that
rotted in some studio's fridge for nearly twenty years and someone felt
they had a hit on their hands, unfortunately for us they did.
I'm going to sum up the plot of this film in one sentence since I feel
no need to waste punctuation on it. Here goes. Peter Saunders is
interested in woman whom he keeps in touch with over the internet, he
arranges a meeting and discovers that is noneother than Queen Latifah
playing an ex-con, now Peter must represent her in her appeal before his
life falls apart.
There, that's it. Expect the usual cultural misunderstandings. You know
what? This flim reminds me of Caddyshack II! It does, really! I mean
we've got the misunderstandings at a ritzy golf club. snobby rich
people, and an annoying comedian all in one. Plus we've got overblown
scenes such as a three minute cat fight in a bathroom between Latifah
and... some other chick that gets almost laugingly brutal.
I have to confess though, I don't really like Steve Martin. For some
reason the man irritates me to a level of which it becomes a chore to
watch any film he is in. But I looked past that and you know what I
found in the film, nothing. This is so ablysmally average it's painful
to watch and an insult to the film industry. The only two actors that
stood out from the rest were Queen Latifah and Eugene Levy who do their
best with very little. Nonetheless this flim tries to ratify the problem
of racism in America by representing us with the old ideals, I mean not
all black people talk like Latifah's character or any of the other
stereotypical characters. And not all white people talk like the rich
snobs represented here. It's a slap in the face to any respective film
viewer.
The only good spot on the disc. The film is represented in anamorphic
2.40:1 widescreen. The transfer is nearly perfect but edge enhancement
can be quite a problem. Very rarely did I not notice halos and edgings
around characters, even hairdos represented significant edge
enhancement. I also spotted some compression artifacts. But overall the
transfer maintains a very film-like appearance.
The audio is spotty to say the least. Being a dialogue centered film the
dialogue sure isn't audible. I nearly had to crank the system up just to
hear it. The only times the audio presented anything worthwhile were the
scenes in clubs where a bass system was being used. Otherwise, prepare
to crank.
Buena Vista wanted to overload this disc with extras... too bad not one
single feature is worth watching.
Breaking Down Bringing Down the House:
This piece of studio fluff runs 16 minutes. All it is is the people
involved patting each other on the backs for something they feel was
worthwhile. Ugh.
The Godfather of Hip-Hop:
What the Hell is this? I don't know whether it's a trailer or a tribute to
Eugene Levy. Whatever it was I don't recommend it.
Better than the Rest:
music video by Queen Latifah. Double ugh.
Audio Commentary:
The writer and director are present here. Both feel
like they just created a masterpiece of global importance but they are
blinded to the grave truth.
Deleted Scenes:
8 minutes long and only prolongs the torture.
Gag Reel:
I tell ya I felt like gagging at the overwhelming amount of cheese.
There is not one extra on this entire disc worth watching. Clearly a
case of quantity over quality. The scary thing is that somewhere this
film has a fan and they're probably loving every minute of it...
Packaging is amaray featuring a zoomed in version of the film's
thearical poster. The menus are among the worst and most annoying I've
seen in my history of watching DVDs. They're colored in like grafitti
and eh don't get me started. This is the first time I think I hit mute
when I selecting the extras. The old Buena Vista mentality of 12
chapters for a film is back once again.
Overall I can't find any reason to recommend this film. I mean Queen
Latifah and Eugene Levy are great but they can't save this film and make
it watchable, they just make it tolerable. If it weren't for
'Dreamcatcher' this would have to be the worst film of the year.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
