TonyMontana96
(Originally seen many years ago) Martin Lawrence embarrasses himself yet again, only this time he dresses up as a fat, African American granny, and guess what, not a single thing works here, it's painfully unfunny from start to finish, with plenty of immature humour designed for toddlers and there's not even a plot, it just makes it up as it goes along. Big Mommas House is one of the worst comedies ever made. 0/10
Python Hyena
Big Momma's House (2000): Dir: Raja Gosnell / Cast: Martin Lawrence, Paul Giamatti, Nia Long, Terrence Howard, Anthony Anderson: A preview of what has been done before. Perhaps the best examples are Some Like It Hot and Tootsie. Title indicates authority as Martin Lawrence as a cop disguises himself as an overweight black woman in order to question a suspect. The real Big Momma has a sudden emergency leaving Lawrence and his partner to bug the house and stake out across the street. They await Nia Long who is fleeing from her boyfriend, an escape convict. Obvious outcome with pitiful comic situations such as the wig falling off Lawrence's head and every other woman apparently having wigs as well. Poor comic timing by director Raja Gosnell who made the superior yet formula driven Never Been Kissed the previous year. What he creates here is less entertaining than a hair gel commercial. Lawrence doesn't look like a female and his voice impersonation is over the top. Paul Giamatti as his partner is a waste. Nia Long is the standard damsel there for one reason and that is to be a potential romantic interest to Lawrence. Terrence Howard plays the criminal. The performance is standard fare with no depth and serves only as someone Lawrence will save Long from. Anthony Anderson plays a moron security guard. Pointless recycled dreck becomes a big free-for-all. Score: 1 / 10
billcr12
Martin Lawrence is FBI agent, Malcolm Turner, and he specializes in going undercover in disguise. He gets a case involving missing money which turns out to be tied up with a former girlfriend of the bank robber named Lester. Sherry(Nia Long) is implicated in the robbery of the bank, and her grandmother, big momma has a large house which Malcolm is staking out. When big momma leaves for a couple of weeks, Malcolm puts on a dress a wig and impersonates the large woman, even to the point of fooling Sherry and her ten year old son. She believes that grandma is acting strange due to senility. Lawrence is a talented comic, and he does well as the cross dressing FBI agent, and Nia Long is beautiful as the love interest. I have an allergy to men dressing as women, whether it's old clips of Milton Berle, or Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in the horrendous, Some Like it Hot, I am not amused. Big Momma's House is just another run of the mill slapstick comedy, and a 5/10.
Electrified_Voltage
I was in my early teens when this was released ten years ago, and I never heard of it at the time. In early 2006, I went to the theatre while this movie's sequel, "Big Momma's House 2", was playing, but since I had never seen the original by this point and could see that the sequel was widely hated, it was obviously not the movie I was going to see. Instead, I went to see "The Matador" on that particular trip to the movie theatre. It took me over four years after that to get around to watching the original "Big Momma's House", and just before seeing it, I had low expectations, thinking it would probably be a very unfunny comedy, even if it wasn't absolutely terrible. However, while it's unsurprisingly not that great, I did laugh.Malcolm Turner is an FBI agent who is very skilled in disguising himself for undercover operations. After it is announced that a murderer and robber named Lester Vesco has just escaped from prison, where he was serving his life sentence, Malcolm and fellow FBI agent John Maxwell are sent to catch him. The FBI believes that the criminal's ex-girlfriend, Sherry Pierce, was also involved in criminal activity, but they haven't been able to prove it. Malcolm and John go to the neighbourhood in Georgia where Sherry's morbidly obese grandmother, Hattie Mae Pierce (a.k.a. Big Momma) lives, and begin to spy on her. Sherry is on her way to her grandmother's house with her son, Trent, but before they arrive, Big Momma leaves town unexpectedly, so Malcolm decides to pose as the feisty elderly woman! He takes on her lifestyle while trying to get the truth from Sherry, and also finds himself falling for the criminal's ex-girlfriend! Before it is announced that Lester has escaped from prison and Malcolm and John go to spy on Big Momma's house, the film begins with the two FBI agents busting a dog fight, and I guess parts of this sequence are somewhat funny, but no more than that. The film continues to be mostly straight-faced after this, as we learn about the escaped prisoner, the two agents are sent on their mission, and Malcolm disguises himself as Big Momma. The early part where Malcolm has to hide in the shower while Big Momma defecates is memorable, but not in a good way. For a while, it didn't seem like I would be able to give "Big Momma's House" a rating higher than 5/10. I frequently snickered, but it didn't look like I would ever find any BIG laughs in the film. However, that eventually changed. While it's still not that consistent later on, it certainly can be funny with the things Malcolm has to do while in disguise, including a baby delivery. The scene with Sherry seeing Malcolm as himself and the FBI agent claiming to be a handyman is also a really funny part. The story and characters can also be interesting.This 2000 release is definitely not generally considered one of the great modern-day comedies, and after seeing it, I can understand why, but I've seen much worse excuses for comedy. I wouldn't have been too surprised if I had thought "Big Momma's House" was really lame when I watched it, but while I'm sure many people think it is, I can't say I do. It is uneven, but sometimes funny. Also, there isn't nearly as much juvenile toilet humour in the movie as that one defecation scene suggests! Martin Lawrence plays the lead role here. I haven't seen him in any other film and have only seen a bit of his stand-up comedy, so I'm not that familiar with his work, but think he does a pretty good job with his performance here. This film is a little cheesy and doesn't have the most original plot, and more thought could have been put into the ending as well, but if you want a silly, raunchy comedy, this particular one might work, at least in some parts.
