The film stars Martin Lawrence as an FBI agent who is tasked with tracking down an escaped convict and his loot, by going undercover as the estranged grandmother of his former girlfriend, unaware of the bond he will form with her.

Malcolm Turner and John Maxwell are two FBI agents who are assigned by their boss to track the escaped convict Lester Vesco, who was serving a life sentence for murder and the armed robbery at 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.

While setting up hidden cameras, Malcolm is forced to hide in a shower curtain when Big Momma rushes to the toilet, causing her to defecate as a result of eating homemade stewed prunes.

This includes 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.

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.

Big Momma's House was released on June 2, 2000, and became a surprise hit in its opening weekend in North America, making $25.6 million and becoming the second-placed film behind Mission: Impossible 2 at that time.

[13] The film, and the series as a whole, have been derided by some as typical of "representations of the big black woman that have appeared in mass marketed comedies" which at the same time devalue the women by casting "male actors wearing Latex fat suits".