Bringing Down the House

One has the impression that at the press screenings, the comedy Bringing Down the House did not. High-school cafeteria soup has more flavor than this bland, tepid throwback, grouses Elvis Mitchell in the New York Times. Despite the fact that the movie stars Steve Martin, Queen Latifah, Joan Plowright and Eugene Levy, most of the critics apparently found little to laugh at in the movie. Gene Seymour in Newsday compares it to 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. Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal asks, How long has it been since we saw Steve Martin in a great comedy? Don't expect greatness in his new one, or even pretty-goodness. And Rita Kempley in the Washington Post describes it this way: An embarrassment for all concerned, this witless, odd-couple comedy slings separate but equal gibes at blacks and whites . . . and still manages to ridicule gays and Hispanics. Why was this picture made? Well, probably for the likes of critics like Carol Rickey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who calls it possibly the most sidesplitting guy-and-gal screen team since W.C. Fields and Mae West traded barbs. Or Roger Moore in the Baltimore Sun, who writes: Bringing Down the House is a gut-busting black-and-white culture clash comedy. ... The first truly funny movie of 2003 plays the race card, often to hilarious effect. Or Jami Bernard in the New York Daily News, who comments: Queen Latifah and Steve Martin make an odd couple that really rocks in Bringing Down the House, a comedy that successfully plays with stereotypes, both racial and personal.