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Bringing Down The House

Bringing Down The House (2003)

tomatometer

34

Average Rating: 4.7/10
Reviews Counted: 147
Fresh: 50 | Rotten: 97

Though the cast shines, they can't save this comedy, which is overly contrived and filled with outdated and offensive racial jokes.

35

Average Rating: 4.8/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 22

Though the cast shines, they can't save this comedy, which is overly contrived and filled with outdated and offensive racial jokes.

audience

60

liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 361,155

My Rating

Movie Info

A man looking for a woman just like himself ends up with someone quite different in this farcical comedy. Peter Sanderson (Steve Martin) is a lawyer who is having trouble getting his life back on track after his wife, Kate (Jean Smart), divorces him; he's also adjusting to his new status as a single father. Looking for companionship, Peter tries an internet dating site and virtually meets "lawyer-girl," an attractive and single fellow attorney. Peter makes a date with her, but the woman who

PG-13,

Comedy

Jason Filardi

Aug 5, 2003

$132.5M

Touchstone Pictures - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (167) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (99) | DVD (32)

A comedy that successfully plays with stereotypes, both racial and personal.

April 22, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Daily News
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

March 18, 2003 Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A comedy constructed from tapped-out ideas.

March 14, 2003
Denver Rocky Mountain News
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A Film in Which Steve Martin Will Appear in Full Hip-Hop Drag With Appropriate Slang for Not Less Than Six Minutes.

March 11, 2003 Full Review Source: Village Voice
Village Voice
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The material is thin and pandering and almost criminally negligent in bypassing opportunities for humor.

March 9, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Magazine
New York Magazine
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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.

March 7, 2003 Full Review Source: USA Today
USA Today
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's a wheezing, rusted machine of cheap jokes, cartoon performances, and crummy plotting, using shock value and insensitivity to make its painfully unfunny points.

July 26, 2012 Full Review Source: Blu-ray.com
Blu-ray.com

Everything about this film is painfully familiar, except, perhaps, for the vicious-but-comic catfight between Latifah and Missi Pyle, who plays a high-society gold digger.

May 12, 2012 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

Martin and Latifah rule in boundary-pushing PG-13.

December 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

If you've seen the commercials for Bringing Down the House, you already know the movie's best moments and most memorable lines...

January 6, 2004 Full Review Source: Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)
Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)

Irreverent but perhaps not funny enough, "Bringing Down the House" gives Queen Latifah the chance to shine opposite Steve Martin.

October 7, 2003 Full Review Source: EDGE Boston
EDGE Boston

Audience Reviews for Bringing Down The House

Good+
July 6, 2011
spielberg00

Super Reviewer

A great feel good comedy!
June 24, 2011
murphmann93
Bethany Murphy

Super Reviewer

    1. Howie Rosenthal: I'd like to dip you in Cheez Whiz and spread you over a Ritz cracker...if I'm not being too subtle.
    2. Charlene Morton: Boy, you are some kind of freaky!
    3. Howie Rosenthal: Oh, you have no idea. You got me straight trippin', Boo!
    – Submitted by Margaret H (10 months ago)

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