acting in this movie is great and it's just a really really funny movie, I'd urge anyone to see it cause I think it's one of the funniest movies ever.

upside down. Steve Martin and Queen Latifah had such funny chemistry together. I hope they make another funny movie together.

hard. Don't expect much, just go see this and enjoy.

wild and crazy guy is here to stay.The film sees Martin as lawyer Peter Sanderson, recent divorcee and top-dog at his law firm, who now at the age of god-only-knows, decides to ditch his now "whack" existence, and goes 'net surfing for the perfect woman. He apparently strikes gold with a sex, slim blonde laywer he meets in a chat-room. But he is taken by surprise when his date arrives in the sexy, big-boned, brassy form of escaped convict Charlene Queen Latifah . Entering his life with a strut that would make Oprah blush, Charlene attempts to convince Peter to re-open her case and help her clear her name. That's not before turning his life upside-down, and posing as his kids' nanny tries to help Peter reclaim that what he so dearly yearns for, his family and wife. How, ahem, sweet. And with all the tomfoolery that ensues comes a girl-on-girl "bitch-slapping" session between Charlene and Peter's sister-in-law, a drunken night of dancing and sexual awakening believe me boys, you've never seen it this way before , and gangster parties louder than Martin's legendary bonnet.Standing up to its title, "House" really is a treat. Martin, although not in full-on "wild and crazy guy" mode, is on typically top, crowd-pleasing form. His portrayal as the life-searching, middle-aged, toffee-nosed twit is inspired, managing to mix the side-splittingly funny with the touching and poignant to brilliant effect, recalling such affecting form he showed in "Parenthood" and "Bowfinger". Latifah, meanwhile, shows that she has the potential for greatness. her larger-than-life performance is uproarious, bringing charisma and buoyancy to a largely one-dimensional character. She is also quiet the vixen too. The support from Eugene Levy is also first-class. Playing Peter's best mate, who is "straight trippin'" over Charlene, Levy steals practically every scene he appears in, with his dead-pan humour and flawless timing providing the some of the films most painfully funny scenes.The overall quality of the film is pretty standard stuff. The plot is nothing we haven't seen a thousand times before. The writer and director, while both efficient, don't really add anything fresh and exciting to the buddy comedy genre here. That said, when the films funny, it's an absolute hoot, with the cast stealing the show with marvellous chemistry, and giving us three of best comedic turns you're likely to see all year. Delightful **** out of FIVE

business man who won't get his priorities right with his family and work, he expects to meet a beautiful, intelligent, and blond white lawyer he met off the internet, but instead gets Charlene, a tough soul sister who has just escaped prison and wants Peter to get her name cleared. She claims she is innocent and she won't leave Peter alone until he helps out, through the madness of trying to play Peter off as a business man and trying to get his family back, Charlene teaches him a thing or two along with him teaching her as well.There are just some hilarious scenes, my favorite I think was the cat fight scene between Charlene and Peter's ex sister in-law. That was just hilarious! I also loved Steve getting accepted at a hard core gangsta's club and the last scene of Charlene and her new boyfriend, Howie. Steve and Queen were so cool together and I would highly recommend this film! 9/10

Eugene Levy, who stole every scene he was is, as usual, and gave us all a great primer on a whole new 'straight tripping' language.

seems to blend himself into this joke of a lawyer, who is so uptight and anal that he never has enough time for his children. He has some hysterical scenes at the hip hop club playing an Eminem-type character, outdancing everyone. Mr. Martin's experience in the chat room brings him a lot more than he bargained for: the irrisistible Charlene, who turns his life upside down.Eugene Levy has some bright moments as Steve Martin's friend in the firm. Joan Plowright repeats herself into the role of the ogre with a heart of gold, once she loosens up with the right kind of smoke. The rest of the cast is good, working with the material they're given to perform. If you are trying to get away from the horrible news being bombarded at us these days, this is the film for you.

she's a con who has done time. Charlene's motivation is to acquire affordable, quality legal services to clean up her record--she swears she's innocent.Ostensibly a film that would comically explore the serious issue of racism and other kinds of appearance preconceptions between two very different communities, Bringing Down the House is more a series of loosely tied gags. It plays like a sketch film, with the theme/subtext as a unifying factor. At that, the gags or sketches are mostly successful, although the film is not quite funny enough to work as an outrageous comedy and not quite serious enough to work as a "message film", even though it may occasionally come close on both accounts.The three members of the principle cast--Martin, Latifah and Eugene Levy--are good, with Levy being underused, but for me, some of the best material arrived with the supporting cast. Joan Plowright as the wealthy Mrs. Arness, Kimberly J. Brown as Peter's former sister-in-law Sarah, and Betty White as Mrs. Kline, Peter's neighbor all routinely stole the show when they appeared. They were given the most outrageous material, with Arness and Kline being particularly racist. White's character is similar in tone to her excellent supporting role in Lake Placid 1999 , although she was underused here.For some, it may be an asset that the film tries to veer away from becoming cartoonish. I think it would have benefited from moving further into absurdist territory--for my tastes, even though Martin has had many great films, he has never surpassed The Jerk 1979 , but that's too much of a personal preference for me to really count it as a flaw. It's also interesting that scripter Jason Filardi tries to work in a mostly serious crime/drama subplot towards the climax, but it's a bit too little, too late, and is an odd change of tone, even though the comedy bits surrounding the subplot are good. On the serious side, other than the material about racism, the strongest aspect is that Charlene teaches Peter how to be a better parent and family man. A couple scenes on that end were actually moving.Overall, Bringing Down the House is a bit of a mixed bag, but approached as a light "sketch comedy/drama", it is entertaining. My rating occasionally leaned towards a 7, but remained closer to a 7.5 or 8.