Bringing Down the House

Travis Willock reviews

Bringing Down the House
(widescreen edition)Distributed by
Buena Vista Home Entertainment

• Cert: PG-13
• Cat.no: 32238
• Running time: 105 minutes
• Year: 2003
• Pressing: 2003
• Region(s): 1, NTSC
• Chapters: 12
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Languages: English, French
• Subtitles: English, French
• Widescreen: 2.40:1
• 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: $29.98
• Extras:Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentary, Gag Reel, Behind-the-Scenes,Music Video, Eugene Levy Featurette.
  

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  Director:

  Adam Shankman

Screenplay:

Jason Filardi

Cast:

Peter: Steve Martin
Charlene: Queen Latifah
Howie: Eugene Levy
Gendler: Michael Rosenbaum

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It’s a scary world we live in.I mean that’s the only way to explainhow disasters like this get filmed or even greenlit to begin with. Welive in a world where average garbage like this can become a superstarwhile an action film that delivers on all levels, likeTerminator 3barely makes what this made. Bringing Down the House did just that, itbrought it an estimated $130 million domestically, costing only $30million to create. Terminator 3 for instance looks to possibly break$150 million only if it’s lucky. In my opinion a film like that deservedmuch more since it delivered everything an audince could desire, action,adventure, mild romance (not too much to gag you per se), badasscoolness, and much more.

Now we have this TV movie that somehow passed as a theatrical feature. Itell ya, when I was watching this I seriously thought I had just met DocBrown and had somehow transported back to 1985. Because that’s what yearit feels like when you remind yourself that this turd was filmmed justlast year. This film seriously feels like a piece of 80s cheese thatrotted in some studio’s fridge for nearly twenty years and someone feltthey 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 feelno need to waste punctuation on it. Here goes. Peter Saunders isinterested in woman whom he keeps in touch with over the internet, hearranges a meeting and discovers that is noneother than Queen Latifahplaying an ex-con, now Peter must represent her in her appeal before hislife falls apart.

There, that’s it. Expect the usual cultural misunderstandings. You knowwhat? This flim reminds me of Caddyshack II! It does, really! I meanwe’ve got the misunderstandings at a ritzy golf club. snobby richpeople, and an annoying comedian all in one. Plus we’ve got overblownscenes such as a three minute cat fight in a bathroom between Latifahand… some other chick that gets almost laugingly brutal.

I have to confess though, I don’t really like Steve Martin. For somereason the man irritates me to a level of which it becomes a chore towatch any film he is in. But I looked past that and you know what Ifound in the film, nothing. This is so ablysmally average it’s painfulto watch and an insult to the film industry. The only two actors thatstood out from the rest were Queen Latifah and Eugene Levy who do theirbest with very little. Nonetheless this flim tries to ratify the problemof racism in America by representing us with the old ideals, I mean notall black people talk like Latifah’s character or any of the otherstereotypical characters. And not all white people talk like the richsnobs represented here. It’s a slap in the face to any respective filmviewer.

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The only good spot on the disc. The film is represented in anamorphic2.40:1 widescreen. The transfer is nearly perfect but edge enhancementcan be quite a problem. Very rarely did I not notice halos and edgingsaround characters, even hairdos represented significant edgeenhancement. I also spotted some compression artifacts. But overall thetransfer maintains a very film-like appearance.

The audio is spotty to say the least. Being a dialogue centered film thedialogue sure isn’t audible. I nearly had to crank the system up just tohear it. The only times the audio presented anything worthwhile were thescenes in clubs where a bass system was being used. Otherwise, prepareto crank.

Buena Vista wanted to overload this disc with extras… too bad not onesingle feature is worth watching.

• Breaking Down Bringing Down the House: This piece of studio fluff runs 16 minutes. All it is is the peopleinvolved patting each other on the backs for something they feel wasworthwhile. Ugh.
• The Godfather of Hip-Hop: What the Hell is this? I don’t know whether it’s a trailer or a tribute toEugene 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 feellike they just created a masterpiece of global importance but they areblinded 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 acase of quantity over quality. The scary thing is that somewhere thisfilm has a fan and they’re probably loving every minute of it…

Packaging is amaray featuring a zoomed in version of the film’sthearical poster. The menus are among the worst and most annoying I’veseen in my history of watching DVDs. They’re colored in like grafittiand eh don’t get me started. This is the first time I think I hit mutewhen I selecting the extras. The old Buena Vista mentality of 12chapters for a film is back once again.

Overall I can’t find any reason to recommend this film. I mean QueenLatifah and Eugene Levy are great but they can’t save this film and makeit watchable, they just make it tolerable. If it weren’t for’Dreamcatcher’ this would have to be the worst film of the year.

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0OVERALLReview copyright © Travis Willock, 2003.

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