Search - Big Momma's House (Special Edition) on DVD

Patricia H. from WAYNESVILLE, NC
Reviewed on 2/8/2010...

very funny movie.

0 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Melanie C. from EDMONDS, WA
Reviewed on 9/4/2009...

This movie is incredibly funny. My son is 7 and he loves it too, makes him crack up everytime we watch it.

Martin Lawrence continues to make me Laugh!

greg_ryan_howell@yahoo.com | Iron Mountain, MI United States | 06/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Blue Streak was a suprise hit to me last fall, Big Momma's House suprised me this summer. I laughed my astrodynamics off watching Martin Lawrence dress up as BIG MOMMA (A 60 year old 400 pound lady) Not only was this a super funny movie, but a great story and excellent chemistry between Nia Long and Martin. Paul Giamatti, playing Lawrences FBI partner, is just as funny as Martin when given the chance. A few scenes stick out in mind like when BIG MOMMA (lawrence) take self defense class and when BIG MOMMA dunks over two other guys heads. Non-stop laughing in this one, go check it out--you're sure to like it. --Star Wars on DVD-- Come on Lucas!"

Big Momma's House

Farffleblex Plaffington | 10/11/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I hesitated to go see this movie because I thought it would be terrible and I thought it would be lacking in the "hilarious department".All I can say is that this was by far one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. I enjoyed it so much, that I went back to see the movie twice. Martin Lawrence was very, very funny. I laughed so hard that I was embarassing myself.This is definitely a "must see" movie."

Good, but not as good as it could have been with some radica

Farffleblex Plaffington | Parnybarnel, Mississippi | 08/25/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The biggest problem with Big Momma's house is that you can often see just how funny it should be, but the cast and crew are not able to sustain the occasional hilarious parts with any consistency.

It doesn't seem to help that Big Momma's House wants to be more than a comedy. Writers Darryl Quarles and Don Rhymer shoot for a combination of a crime comedy ala Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and a romantic comedy. But the core comedy is absurdist, while the mostly serious crime stuff is so underwritten that it would be better absent, and the somewhat serious rom-com stuff is so generic and predictable that it has all the surprise of attending Mass.

To me, the comedy being absurdist is a plus, but it doesn't mesh well with other modes. It's ridiculous, of course, that Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence) is trying to pass himself off as "Big Momma" Hattie Mae Pierce (Ella Mitchell). That's a large part of what makes it funny. However, director Raja Gosnell's decision to play the rest of the cast as mostly deadpan is a strange one. It leads the viewer to take the film in a more realist mode, but if you're doing that, you keep asking yourself why anyone else would believe that Turner is actually Big Momma. Gosnell should have gone for another approach during the Turner as Big Momma scenes. It's not that they're never funny, but too often the deadpan interaction breaks the humor.

However, the deadpan attitude works wonders when Mitchell is Big Momma. Mitchell is a fantastic here as a comic actress and especially Paul Giamatti as John is hilarious interacting with her. Once those too-brief scenes ended, I was wishing they wouldn't have, and when they reappeared again at the end, it made me more fully realize how much better they were. A whole film could have and should have been written around Mitchell as Big Momma with Giamatti and Lawrence interacting with her and beautiful co-star Nia Long via some other story.

Even with these problems, Big Momma is an enjoyable film. My wife enjoyed it even more than I did, we're looking forward to watching Big Momma's House 2, and we'll certainly watch this again in the future. But it's a case of moments of brilliance poking through so that you see just how much better it could have been."