Burning Down the House Movie Review

Most curious: Joanne Baron produces and stars Burning Down the House (not to be confused with Bringing Down the House).

Trashy and foul-mouthed (and playing with her boobs throughout the film), I wracked my brain to figure out where I'd seen her before. Turns out Baron was Mitch Taylor's mother in the cult classic Real Genius. Here she's reunited with Dr. Hathaway himself, William Atherton.

Small world.

In fact, that's kind of the theory behind Burning, yet another entry into a long line of movies about making movies and the crazy things Hollywood people will do to get them done. In this case, it involves burning down a house to get the insurance money.

That's pretty much "the joke" here, though a broad range of quirky and/or good actors like Arye Gross, C. Thomas Howell, Rene Auberjonois, and Atherton help the film rise above its cliche-ridden script. (Hollywood in-jokes only really work if your stars are Hollywood insiders. Why people keep trying to remake The Player without access to the talent is beyond me.)

In the final analysis Burning is not terribly worthwhile, though if you can't find anything else on the rental shelf, you might check it if for no other reason than to watch the buxom Baron incessantly fondle herself.

As a side note, the film carries the most pathetic marketing ploy ever: A tagline reading "8.8 out of 10! Internet Movie Database rating." The movie had 5 votes, probably all from the cast/crew. I rest assured that by the time you read this review, that rating will be long gone.