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| Bringing Down The House
DVD Review |
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Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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Bringing
Down The House
(Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
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| DVD
Release Date:
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August
5, 2003
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Length:
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105 mins.
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| Rated:
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PG-13
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| Format:
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Widescreen (2.35:1) Enhanced for 16x9 Televisions
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Audio:
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English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, French Dolby Digital
5.1 Surround Sound
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| Subtitles:
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Closed-Captioned
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| Extras:
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Audio
Commentary with director Adam Shankman and writer Jason Filardi,
"Breaking Down Bringing Down The House"
Behind-the-Scenes Featurette, "The Godfather of Hop"
Featurette, Queen Latifah Music Video, Deleted Scenes, Gag Reel,
Trailers
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What can I say. I think I expected more
out of this movie. I've always been a big Steve Martin fan. Looking at
his credits, who wouldn't be. It all started with The Jerk. Dead Men
Don't Wear Plaid. The Man with Two Brains. And it peaked with Planes,
Trains and Automobiles and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. But after that,
his career took a bit of a turn, and we started seeing more movies
like Parenthood, Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride Part II.
Throw in there a couple of more seriously themed movies like Grand
Canyon and LA Story and we definitely see a change in his career
trajectory. While I liked every one of those movies, also mixed in
there were a few that didn't even register on the map like Leap of
Faith, A Simple Twist of Fate and Mixed Nuts. Gone was the Steve
Martin of old. And when Brining Down The House came out earlier this
year, I can honestly say that I didn't expect much. But then it
happened. The movie did well. And it kept doing well to the tune of
$132 million at the box office. I'll admit that I felt happy for Steve
- that his career was back on track. Still, I waited for the DVD
release for my final judgment. And I'm glad I did. An enjoyable flick,
but not as great as I would have expected based on the box office
returns.
Bringing Down The House is the story of Peter Sanderson (Steve
Martin), a divorced workaholic attorney who hooks up online with what
he thinks is the girl of his dreams - a brainy bombshell lawyer.
Unfortunately for Peter, the woman on the other side of the keyboard
is Charlene (Queen Latifah), a prison escapee who's not at all
interested in romance. Despite his insistence that she leave, Charlene
blackmails Peter with their online romance in order to get what she
wants - for Peter to clear her name. She ends up posing as his nanny
while he works the case and blah blah blah, end of story, she ends up
teaching him a lesson or two about relationships and his children
while at the same time hooking up with one of Peter's co-workers,
played by the always hilarious Eugene Levy.
Overall, I found Bringing Down The House to be very predictable. The
whole outcast teaching the lead character just what an idiot he really
is bit is overdone. I saw it coming a mile away. However, I also
would've predicted that Peter and Charlene would've hooked-up together
in the end, but that didn't happen, so I guess it wasn't entirely that
predictable. So maybe what I'm say here is that Bringing Down The
House is a good movie - I'd even say it was above average. It just
didn't live up to my expectations, and here's why. All the main
characters did well. The story was do-able. It wrapped up very nicely.
But it was just too average. It just wasn't really anything that
exceptional.
The extras on this DVD, although all standard fare, proved to be
surprisingly good. I'll start with my least favorite - the audio
commentary from director Adam Shankman and writer Jason Filardi. Only
pretty good. There was a lot of patting each other on the back which
always bothers me. That's the problem with a lot of audio
commentaries, so it's not really a knock against this particular DVD.
If you're expecting anything more, don't look here. I really would've
like to have heard a commentary with the cast involved, but it wasn't
available here. Maybe for the sequel... Also on this disc was a
tongue-in-cheek featurette titled "The Godfather of Hop"
featuring Eugene Levy. This, for me at least, was hilarious. It's nice
to see Levy get his props. He's had a wonderful year, with Bringing
Down The House, A Mighty Wind and American Wedding, and it's easy to
see from this mockumentary that where why he achieves this success -
because he enjoys the respect from his peeps, er, I mean his peers.
The making-of featurette, titled "Breaking Down the House"
was standard fare, but there were parts of it that were genuinely
enjoyable, specifically that parts dealing with the film's cast.
Watching it made me realize what a big part of the movie the
supporting cast played, and also how funny they were. It also brought
back to mind some of the funnier parts of the movie I had almost
forgot, which was nice. Next up was a music video by Queen Latifah
which was salvaged only by and appearance by Eugene Levy. I guess
that's probably because I'm not really a fan of her music to begin
with, and this video did little to change that. The deleted scenes
were pretty good and could've easily been included in the final
product. I would've like to have heard a commentary from the director
along with these scenes explaining why they were cut. Finally, a gag
reel, which I don't care what anyone says, is always funny on any DVD.
The one thing I would have liked to have seen in the collection of
bonus materials would be a dictionary of some of the terms used in the
movie. I found a lot of times, I had no idea what they were talking
about. A dictionary would've helped a lot...
As for the audio and video of the DVD, the film was presented in
2.35:1 widescreen enhanced for 16x9 Televisions and the audio was
presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. In other words, it
looked and sounded great.
So what am I saying about Bringing Down The House? Was it a good
movie? Sure - just not as good as I expected. Is Steve Martin back?
It's no Planes Trains and Automobiles, but it's a helluva lot better
than Mixed Nuts! As for the DVD, will you get your money's worth? I'd
say the bonus materials are definitely above average - but they still
could've used a little bit more. So it's a mixed bag. Final analysis?
It's nice to see a bit of the old Steve Martin in an okay movie with
pretty good features. As a total package, the DVD is definitely worth
a look - just don't get your hopes up, or you might be disappointed.
| The Movie: |
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6/10 |
| The
Extras: |
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7/10 |
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Bringing Down The House
Liam Cullin -
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