Hot off her Oscar-nominated success in "Chicago," Queen Latifah gives Steve Martin a run for his considerable comic prowess in the questionably tasteful but often laugh-out-loud funny "Bringing Down the House." Eugene Levy, Joan Plowright and Betty White are also in on the ribald act -- the picture's racially driven humor threatens to cross a line of inappropriateness on more than one occasion, but darned if it didn't play like gangbusters at a preview screening. With Latifah drawing a young, loyal urban audience and Martin letting loose with the kind of big physical performance he hasn't tried on in years, the Touchstone picture has a good shot at bringing down the house records as far as comedies opening during nonholiday weekends are concerned.

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