Bringing Down the House [P&S]

"Adam Shankman's comedy Bringing Down the House comes to DVD with a standard full-frame transfer that fails to preserve the original theatrical aspect ratio of the film. An English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital 5.1, and a French soundtrack has been recorded in Dolby Digital Stereo. There are no subtitles, but the English soundtrack is closed-captioned. Supplemental materials include a commentary track recorded by Shankman and screenwriter Jason Filardi. While short on any real insight into the film, the commentary makes it obvious that the pair had a fabulous time making the film and they do their best to communicate that feeling. A making-of featurette is paint-by-numbers. There is a short and very funny featurette on how Eugene Levy brought his knowledge of hip-hop culture to the film. A music video from Queen Latifah, deleted scenes, and a gag reel round out this package from Disney/Buena Vista. While this release is fine for what it is, the same features are available on a different edition that also offers a widescreen transfer of the film. That disc is preferable to this one."