Bringing Down The House Reviews
Las Vegas Weekly
It's completely forgettable and unoriginal, but it might make a good rental on a slow family movie night.
| Original Score: 2.5/5
Film Snobs
I think it was after Betty White told Steve Martin's son not to "wear his hair like a ***" that I thought about walking out.
Full Review
| Original Score: 0/5
Top CriticA comedy is not allowed to end with the couples incorrectly paired. It goes against the deeply traditional requirements of the audience.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Countingdown.com
It relies on stolen gags for humor, forced relationships for empathy, and racist jokes for shock value.
Full Review
| Original Score: D+
Arizona Daily Star
Has so much going for it, it's all the more jarring when the laughs stop coming. It's a shame the movie couldn't finish what it started.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
eFilmCritic.com
Equally insulting to both races, Bringing Down the House is one of the most hateful and low-minded comedies I've ever seen - and it absolutely earns a spot right next to the justifiably loathed Amos & Andrew.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
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.
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/5
Blu-ray.com
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: D
Hollywood.com
It's a broad comedy, pure and simple, but in making us laugh, apparently it is also necessary to insult our intelligence.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
Sacramento News & Review
A tawdry waste all around.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
Spectrum (St. George, Utah)
If the idea of actress Betty White using the term 'Negro' sounds hilarious to you then maybe this is a your kind of shallow humor.
Full Review
| Original Score: C-
About.com
The movie gets stuck in a seemingly never-ending cycle of pointless, recycled racial jokes and ethnic stereotypes.
Full Review
| Original Score: D+
CinemaBlend.com
Twenty years ago it was funny to see white people trying to act black.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
The laughs should roll like thunder, but instead they mew like kittens.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
