Having just seen CHICAGO and being impressed by Queen Latifah in that, and having enjoyed her recent interview on Conan O’Brien, I left work early again (I do that a lot) and went to see Bringing Down The House.
Well, it’s exactly what you’d expect when you see the trailer, but that’s OK…
It’s funny!

Queen Latifah and Steve Martin have great chemistry in this comedy that follows all the usual tricks of the miss-matched buddy flick. But again, despite the predictability, it works because at times it’s really laugh out loud funny. Queen Latifah is very talented. Like Will Smith before her, it’s very easy to forget about her rap background when you watch her on screen. She has great comedic timing, and is very believable. Also, she seems to have a pretty good business head, as she is an executive producer on the flick, and in her conversation with Conan revealed that she was pretty involved with putting the whole thing together. She also has an undeniable charm about her. I dunno how often she puts out CDs, or if she’s actually out of the music scene or what, but she should definitely make more movies.

Steve Martin is really good here too. Funny though, he’s pretty much the same he always is.
Ergo, Steve Martin is always really good?
I guess so.
Anyway, in the trailer I thought he would be kinda stupid when trying to be “urban”, but he actually pulls it off nicely. He also manages to pull off a pretty funny scene of a sexual nature, albeit a PG-13 scene. Funny that, because you may not know this but in a silly little movie from the early 90’s, HouseSitter, Martin has a really funny love scene with Dana Delany.
The scene in question here isn't as funny, but it still made me laugh.

Eugene Levy plays Martin’s coworker, and as usual, he steals every scene he’s in. The man is just hilarious. And that dead pan delivery of his is priceless.

Something that kind of bugged me in Bringing Down the House is Michael Rosenbaum.
He’s a great actor, and as the bald megalomaniac in training, Lex Luthor, he’s the best thing about TV’s Smallville.
But the wigs stink.
In SORORITY BOYS his wig was so obvious it was distracting. Here it’s a little more subtle, but still annoying. Can’t he just play other roles bald?
I mean the bald look is fairly common now. I mean, Hell, I’m bald too, you know?
As a personal aside, Victor Webster has a small role in this movie too. This is interesting because he is among the many rumored possibilities to wear the Superman costume in the “still in development” future motion picture. Since I have no life I can take note of stupid little things like that, you know, that a guy that might play Superman is in a movie with the guy that plays Lex Luthor. No really, I need help.

So yeah, anyway, Bringing Down The House is a funny movie.
Go ahead, go see it.