Big Momma's House

Malcolm Turner is an FBI Agent, who is celebrated by his colleagues and other groups, of his distinct ability to be in disguise in such missions. Agent Turner and fellow colleague John Maxwell are ordered to find escaped convict, Lester Vesco, who was serving a life sentence for murder and armed robbery of a bank. Malcolm and John learn that Lester may be seeking to find his ex-girlfriend, Sherry Pierce, an employee of the bank who is suspected of supplying him with a key to the vault, as the money that was stolen was never recovered. Malcolm and John decide to stake out the house of Sherry's estranged grandmother, Hattie Mae Pierce, an obese, elderly African American woman—whom her friends affectionately call Big Momma—in Cartersville, Georgia.

John finds an available house where he can set his camera systems, while Malcolm is installing the responding-system in the house of Big Momma. While Big Momma and her neighbors greet John, who poses as an actual new city resident, Big Momma rushes to the toilet. After arriving to the bathroom, Malcolm is seen hiding in the shower curtains, while Big Momma experiences flatulence-stricken diarrhea, as a result of eating stewed prunes. In result of working around outside and the effects of the diarrhea, Big Momma chooses to take a shower, in which Malcolm subsequently escapes.

Later that night, Malcolm and John finds out through the cameras that Big Momma is about to leave town for weeks, to care for her ill friend at the hospital. Sherry subsequently calls Big Momma's phone, and Malcolm attempts to mimic Big Momma's voice. This gives Malcolm and John the idea create a prosthetic mask and fat suit, so that Malcolm can assume Big Momma's identity. Sherry and her 10-year-old son Trent arrive at the house the following day, and Malcolm in the identity, welcomes them in. To avoid suspicion, Malcolm must maintain the same expectations of Big Momma. This results to dealing with her lecherous boyfriend, assuming her occupation as a midwife, and attending self-defense classes led by dim-witted security guard Nolan, whom the agents are later forced to recruit when he stumbles onto their operation.

During this time, Malcolm bonds with Sherry and Trent, both in disguise and in his cover story as a handyman hired by Big Momma. He finds nothing to link her to the robbery, nor to the missing money's location. One Sunday morning when preparing to attend church service, John compels Malcolm to not depart his role in attempting to find hidden aspects. In the church service, Malcolm compels Sherry in his disguise, telling of the dangers of secrets, with the vulgar testimony and singing done to express it.

During the surprise birthday party for Big Momma which was later that same Sunday afternoon and night, Malcolm finds the missing money in Trent's footlocker when he returns home to Big Momma's surprise birthday party. His discovery is witnessed by Sherry, who tells him she had no idea what Lester was planning and did not report her key was stolen out of fear of being fired. Matters soon become complicated when John discovers that the real Big Momma has returned home. In his efforts to stop the real Big Momma from re-entering the house, John instructs Nolan to lock her out, but only for Nolan to accidentally lock Malcolm out instead. Meanwhile, Lester tracks Sherry down to Big Momma's house, and takes in Sherry and Trent. In this occurrence, the actual Big Momma sees Sherry and is in awe of seeing her after periods. Sherry believes this is the other variant of Big Momma, and frightently tells her how she have to leave. Nolan notices the visible gun which is located on of Lester's pants, and attempts to put Lester in gunpoint. When Lester attempts to retaliate, Malcolm swiftly enters in, breaking the windows. After the two "Big Mommas," notice each other in confusion, John catches Lester, leading to the fight. Malcolm tackles Lester and subdues him, but at the cost of his disguise being ruined in front of everyone. Trent leaves the scene, in shock of seeing Malcolm. After Malcolm wins the fight, Lester is arrested by the police and John is taken to the hospital after he was shot. Sherry is dismissive and rejects Malcolm, when Malcolm attempted to tell his reasons for the disguise.

Malcolm during one Sunday Morning, is on a phone call, of the topic of delivering a testimony. However; Malcolm is seen attending church service, where he give speech to Sherry and Trent, declaring that he genuinely loves them and indirectly explaining his previous actions. Big Momma responds by forgiving Malcolm for his actions, and the church crowd cheers as Malcolm and Sherry kiss, while Big Momma and the choir sing "Oh Happy Day" during the film's closing credits.

After working on his newest release, Never Been Kissed, Raja Gosnell was commissioned to direct the film in July 1999.^[5] The film was set in Georgia, but filmed in Southern California in early 2000.^[6] Production was originally set to begin on October 10, 1999, but was delayed when Martin Lawrence was rushed to the hospital after collapsing in sweltering heat while running with multiple layers of clothing to lose weight for the role.^[7]

Nia Long was cast in the film after she chose not to portray the role of Alex Munday in Charlie's Angels.^[8] The prosthetic makeup used for Big Momma was created by Greg Cannom and Captive Audience. Cannom had previously created the makeup used by Robin Williams in both Mrs. Doubtfire and Bicentennial Man.^[6]

A soundtrack containing hip hop music was released on May 30, 2000, by So So Def Records. The film's theme song was "Bounce with Me" by Lil Bow Wow. The soundtrack was also a moderate success and has been certified gold since its release. As well as Lil Bow Wow, the soundtrack featured artists such as Jermaine Dupri, Da Brat, and Black Dave, whose single Go Big Girl can be heard briefly in the film. It peaked at number 41 on the Billboard 200 and number 12 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and spawned two hit singles, "Bounce with Me" and "I've Got to Have It".

The film spawned two sequels in the Big Momma series: Big Momma's House 2 (2006) and Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son (2011). Both sequels were light-hearted and more family-friendly than the original story, but saw reduced takings in the box office, and were panned by film critics.

The film was released on DVD and VHS on November 28, 2000, EVD in 2002 and a Blu-ray edition was released on September 16, 2011.