2003, PG-13, 105 minutes

Bringing Down the House is a difficult movie to review. It's filled with racial stereotypes and the story is a contrived mess, so I can't really say it's a wonderful film even for a light-hearted comedy, but on the other hand, all it really wants to do is make the audience laugh and in that case it clearly succeeds.

Steven Martin plays an upper-middle class white guy who spends far more time worrying about his job than his family, which, at the start of the movie, has already led to his wife divorcing him. It's a good thing he hooks up online with Queen Latifa (although she misleads him to think she's a "skinny white broad"), because, apparently, only black people know how to live life the right way. She's hip and he's uptight, and she teaches him to loosen up while he uses his lawyer skills to investigate the case that landed her in the joint. Of course, if they had one realistic conversation the entire story would collapse because she conveniently doesn't tell him a few extremely important details, but I guess I'm just being an un-hip white guy for pointing out such pesky plot holes.

As horrendous as the story actually is, what should be an absolutely terrible film turns out to be quite enjoyable simply because of a few great moments of comedy. Eugene Levy - who you've probably seen in the commercials saying "you've got me straight trippin', boo" - is funny as a version of Steve Martin's character but hip with black urban culture, while Martin and Latifa also have a couple of scenes that are so over-the-top you can't help but laugh.

The one really annoying thing is that the film could have been just as funny without being as racist as it is. It's fine that Martin is a straight-laced white guy and Latifa is a hip black woman, but their entire personalities should not be focused on skin color alone. Martin isn't un-hip because he just is, but because he's white. Screenwriter Jason Filardi must believe that all white people and black people fit into a nice collection of stereotypes. Even though Levy's hip white character is a contrast, his cross-cultural awareness is merely used as a basis for jokes.

So long as you aren't easily offended by the use of racial stereotypes, and tend to like Steve Martin's goofy style of comedy, chances are you'll enjoy Bringing Down the House. I mostly recommend it to moviegoers who can get past the absurdly contrived story and simply laugh. That said, it's still not a very good movie.