Bringing Down the House (2003)

When Steve Martin picks a comedy, we pay attention. This is not nostalgia. This is respect. So if the man says Jason Filardi's script about a conservative white lawyer who has his life scrambled by a black felon is funny, we're inclined -- perhaps against our better judgment -- to be interested. ''Also, I was taken with 'The Wedding Planner,' which was directed by Adam Shankman,'' says Martin, referring to, yes, that ''Wedding Planner.'' ''I just felt Shankman had an insight into how to do physical comedy.'' ''Chicago'''s Queen Latifah plays the convict Martin meets over the Internet, and ''American Pie'''s Eugene Levy is the friend who falls for her. ''My character is ghetto, but she's smart...and Eugene likes some soul in his food,'' says Latifah, laughing. ''Eugene is so good. But I would have to tell him what to say. Like, 'You got me straight trippin', boo.' And he would repeat it, and it sounded exactly right. Of course, then I would have to explain to him what it meant.'' (March 7)