Fresh
A comedy that successfully plays with stereotypes, both racial and personal.
Jami Bernard, New York Daily News
Bringing Down the House
Everything he needed to know about life, she learned in prison.
2003 · 1h 45m · PG-13
Comedy, Drama
Directed by
Adam Shankman
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Bringing Down the House
Overview
Uptight lawyer Peter Sanderson wants to dive back into dating after his divorce and has a hard time meeting the right women. He tries online dating and lucks out when he starts chatting with a fellow lawyer. The two agree to meet in the flesh, but the woman he meets — an escaped African-American convict named Charlene — is not what he expected. Peter is freaked out, but Charlene tries to convince him to take her case and prove her innocence. Along the way, she wreaks havoc on his middle-class life as he gets a lesson in learning to lighten up.
Director and cast
- Adam Shankman Director
- Steve Martin as Peter Sanderson
- Queen Latifah as Charlene Morton
- Eugene Levy as Howie Rottman
- Joan Plowright as Virginia Arness
- Jean Smart as Kate Sanderson
- Kimberly J. Brown as Sarah Sanderson
- Angus T. Jones as Georgey Sanderson
- Missi Pyle as Ashley
- Michael Rosenbaum as Todd Gendler
- Betty White Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
33%
Tomatometer
Rotten
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.
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
Rotten
A comedy constructed from tapped-out ideas.
Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News
Rotten
A Film in Which Steve Martin Will Appear in Full Hip-Hop Drag With Appropriate Slang for Not Less Than Six Minutes.
Jane Dark, Village Voice
Rotten
The material is thin and pandering and almost criminally negligent in bypassing opportunities for humor.
Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture
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