Big Momma's House (Rental)

Big Momma's House is a comedy that revolves around our hero, FBI Agent Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence) going deep under cover to try and catch an escaped federal prisoner. When our convict's ex-girlfriend takes off to hide out at her grandma, Big Momma's house, Lawrence goes along to see if she's linking up with her ex-boyfriend. Big Momma unexpectedly gets called out of town, and in order to not lose track of the lovely Sherry (Nia Long), Lawrence takes on the role of Big Momma.

There's not a whole lot more to this movie's plot, and it's kind of predictable. By about twenty minutes in, you can pretty much tell what's going to happen. It has a lot of the same feel as "The Nutty Professor", including some scary toilet humour akin to the famous fart scene in The Nutty Professor. Unfortunately, this movie doesn't quite cut it in the humour stakes. There are enough funny parts in the film to make it and enjoyable, but you never quite get into belly-laugh range.

The video quality is quite acceptable, although there are a number of times in the fast action sequences where there is some very obvious ghosting. Luckily, there's not too many instances of this, and if you weren't really looking, you might miss them. The film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen. The transfer doesn't seem to have any problems of note. Dark scenes are quite well done, and shadow detail is also more then acceptable.

There is only a 5.1 Dolby Digital sound track, which is well executed. There's not a lot in the surround channels, but due to the nature of the film, it's mostly dialogue anyway.

There are no extra features. There would have been ample opportunity to go through some of the special effects stuff, and it would have been nice to add something to this DVD, as the plot is pretty weak on it's own.

There's a single English subtitle option, although, having an entire screen to turn this feature on and off seems excessive in the menu screens. You get the standard scene selection screens, but none of the menus are animated.

Fox have made this a rental only release. Frankly, this is probably a good move. In the process of reviewing this DVD, I watched it multiple times over a week. I don't think there are going to be flocks of people that are going to want to buy this one - it's not something a repeat performance will make any better. As a rental, it's a good movie, even for an over nighter if you're in the mood for a chuckle.