With Fox’s Special Edition DVD, this Martin Lawrence vehicle comes to its rightful home–the television set. The summer’s surprise blockbuster was good for a laugh here and there in theatres, thanks to Lawrence’s boundless energy and expert timing as an FBI agent who goes undercover as a heavyset old lady. But the barely-developed circumstances surrounding such an unconventional disguise that were hard to swallow in multiplex auditoriums are a bit more forgivable at home; after all, as amusing as the film’s big set pieces were, they did bear more than a whiff of sitcom. But Raja Gosnell’s film was produced for the big screen, and its 1.85:1 images are nicely preserved on this disc, as is typically the case with Fox’s DVD editions.
Despite the overall pedestrian nature of the film, the makeup job used to transform Lawrence into the Big Momma of the title was a superlative achievement, and an ample amount of insight into the process is given in the disc’s supplementary material. The “Building Big Mamma’s House” behind-the-scenes featurette devotes a fair amount of time on the design of the makeup for Lawrence and co-star Ella Mitchell (who plays the real Big Momma), and included separately on the disc is Lawrence’s makeup test (which is a hilarious improv comedy bit in itself). Gosnell and producer David Friendly also touch on the film’s most distinctive feature (aside from Lawrence, that is) in their running commentary, which is fairly humdrum for the most part.
Rounding out the extras on this solidly produced disc are two deleted scenes, one of which is the film’s original animated credit sequence; two music videos; all of the film’s trailers and TV spots; and a reel of outtakes and bloopers of varying comedic value.
Specifications: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen; English 5.1 Surround; English Dolby Surround; French Dolby Surround; English and Spanish subtitles.
