Bringing Down the House on DVD

Steve Martin’s comedic talents are wasted in this racist and formulaic flick. What a shame!

And, in typical Hollywood tradition, the writer has used political labels, reversed from reality, as a weapon to bash conservatives.

Martin is Peter Sanderson, a tax attorney whose life is thrown upside down when the person with whom he’s been flirting on a chat room turns out not to be the tall, thin blonde woman lawyer he’d expected but a chunky-though-sexy black convicted armed robber named Charlene Morton (Queen Latifah, who is also very good).

She’s the irresistible force to his immovable object and basically browbeats Peter into helping her clear her name since she claims she was framed. But Peter’s busy trying to close a big new account for his firm, the account of an “ultraconservative” dowager named Mrs. Arness.

Most of the conflict comes from the fact that these limousine liberal lawyers figure that Mrs. Arness won’t be able to handle the fact that Peter’s hanging with a black chick, which of course is ridiculous in this day and age. What’s worse, Peter’s freaked out because he thinks his neighbors (one of whom is also the sister of his boss) will be upset by a black woman in the house.

Their heavy handed point is that conservatives, such as Mrs. Arness and the neighbor (played by the charming Betty White), can’t handle having blacks around. Talk about racist tripe disguised as fodder for comedy!

Of course this is only a movie so it doesn’t have to reflect reality. But if the producers want us to suspend our disbelief they need to convince us of the reality, and this heavy handed liberalism disguised as comedy doesn’t cut it. In fact, it’s conservatives who consistently prove themselves less bigoted than liberals, the latter of whom seem bound and determined to convince blacks and other minorities that they’re too weak to make it on their own without the liberals’ beneficial help. And that way they get to maintain control, which is what they're all about. Meanwhile, conservatives appoint qualified black people to some of the highest offices in the US government and don't go around shouting "Look at me! I've appointed a black person!"

Anyway, there’s a lot of racist tripe in this movie - such as the scene where Mrs. Arness is over at Peter’s for dinner so he convinces Charlene to don a maid’s outfit for the duration to make her presence more palatable to the conservative old bag.

But the worst thing about this movie is that it just isn’t funny! Oh, sure, Larry King says it’s “One of the funniest movies ever,” according to the DVD’s box, but what does he know? Maybe liberals such as him enjoy racist jokes and stereotypes, but we’d rather have a witty script. Hell, if you want to see a racist joke movie that works, try Undercover Brother. But Undercover Brother succeeds mostly because it makes fun of the racist stereotypes, rather than using the racist stereotypes and false labels as the basis for hamhanded social commentary masquerading as comedy.

The cast is great, however. Martin’s always good and though he’s wasted in this piece of trash he still does a good job. Queen Latifah, who we must admit to not having seen before, has great screen presence and does an excellent job as Charlene. She and Martin also have great chemistry together on the screen.

We were also thrilled to see Eugene Levy along for the ride, and though his part is small he actually has something to do. We wish Hollywood would find a better way to use the considerable talents of the ex-SCTV crowd like Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Joe Flaherty and Catherine O’Hara. They seem to have found some good situations for Martin Short over the years, though now he’s gone off and become a parody of himself. The SCTV-ers proved during that show's run that they have wide-ranging talents, but Hollywood has mostly ignored them or, as in the nerd characters Moranis has been forced to play, stereotyped them.

Also on hand is the luminous Jean Smart, ex of “Designing Women,” who plays Martin’s ex-wife, and Joan Plowright, whose considerable talents and screen presence are wasted as Mrs. Arness. Plowright gets to sputter a bit, tut tut a bit, and then act stoned as the writers pull out the old gag of getting a straight person loaded on marijuana and making her act funny.

Lame. Really, really lame.

Of course everything works out in the end, after Martin’s best scene where he dresses up as a guy from the ‘hood and goes into a black-populated night club trying to get evidence that’ll help clear Charlene. Martin’s performance here is terrific, though the situation is so stupid because these otherwise-supposedly intelligent black people don’t notice that he’s about thirty years older than the dude he’s playing. No, they buy his act hook line and sinker rather than looking at him in derision and sending him on his way with gales of laughter and a good shot to the buttocks.

And Peter gets the deal with Mrs. Arness - but not so much because he’s earned it but because she’s embarrassed that she got stoned and the deal is closed basically so Peter won’t tell anyone. How’s that for an intelligent way of doing business?

Lame. Really, really lame.

The DVD is offered in separately sold anamorphic widescreen and Pan&Scan versions. Fortunately, we got the widescreen version, which is 16x9 TV compatible, and it’s pretty good. The picture quality is good, though not outstanding. It’s sharp and clean and colorful, but doesn’t leap off the screen at you like so many of the great DVD transfers do.

Audio is Dolby Digital 5.1 sy is fine, though we thought the volume a tad low.

Touchstone has piled on a decent set of extras, arguably more than the movie deserves. There’s a running commentary with director Adam Shankman and writer Jason Filardi. You also get a Queen Latifah music video (“Better Than The Rest”), deleted scenes, a gag reel, behind the scenes featurette, and another featurette “The Godfather of Hop."

As Martin fans, we had really looked forward to this movie. Too bad; it once again proves that old theater axiom that “If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage.” Once again, they’ve settled for bad writing, and the result is a bad movie that can’t be saved by a good cast.

Bringing Down the House, from Touchstone Home Video
105 min. anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1, 16x9 TV compatible)/Pan&Scan (SOLD SEPARATELY), Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
Starring Steve Martin, Queen Latifah, Eugene Levy, Joan Plowright, Jean Smart
Produced by David Hoberman, Ashok Amritraj
Written by Jason Filardi, Directed by Adam Shankman

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