Bringing Down The House 2003

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's depressingly tame stuff. Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: The kind of comedy whose best bits have already surfaced in the coming attractions trailer. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: This House is built on a shaky foundation. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: You have somebody as smart as Steve Martin, and as smart and appealing as Queen Latifah in a movie like this. To have such an awful, offensive story is a real disappointment. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The rare film that manages to be simultaneously bland and offensive. Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: Viewers may be more likely to ride with Martin's and Latifah's good vibes than to analyze the lunkheaded racial politics, but very little is fresh here. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: High-school cafeteria soup has more flavor than this bland, tepid throwback. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Read more

Sonia Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: [Latifah's] got sass and smarts aplenty, powering the most interesting character here. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: A movie that desperately wants [Latifah's] hip, her edge and mostly her blackness but doesn't know what to do with the human being who comes with the package. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: It's inspired comic casting with rare feel-good chemistry. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: Diehard fans of any of these stars [Martin, Latifah, Levy, Plowright and White] may be amused -- the movie is, at times, an amusing diversion -- but most will probably find it wanting. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Coarse, poorly tuned comedy. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A movie where each scene seems to stand in a world of its own: funny; tasteless; stale; very funny; what on earth were they thinking? Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: This is one high-concept, please-the-masses comedy that works. Read more

Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: Even the director's flat-footed moves can't quell Martin and Latifah, whose combined energy is fearsome and sometimes most amusing. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Like one of those overbearing relatives who bursts into the living room, invited or not, and shatters your domestic tranquility with a barrage of soggy platitudes and moldy jokes, both of which he's sure you've never heard before. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: The material is thin and pandering and almost criminally negligent in bypassing opportunities for humor. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: A comedy that successfully plays with stereotypes, both racial and personal. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Bringing Down the House offers proof that there are times when superior performances can salvage a mediocre script. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: A comedy is not allowed to end with the couples incorrectly paired. It goes against the deeply traditional requirements of the audience. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: The movie appears to have been made for an audience that considers the idea of black people terribly exotic. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: This is strictly formula stuff, made worse by an utterly careless depiction of the characters, whose road to friendship is neither believable nor remotely accounted for. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The laughs should roll like thunder, but instead they mew like kittens. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It's a sorry situation when actors as talented and funny as Queen Latifah and Steve Martin waste their efforts in an offensive exercise that feels like a bad sitcom. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Read more

Jane Dark, Village Voice: A Film in Which Steve Martin Will Appear in Full Hip-Hop Drag With Appropriate Slang for Not Less Than Six Minutes. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: The sitcom shtick wears thin after a while. Read more