House Party – Film Review

Aspiring club promoters and best buds Damon and Kevin are barely keeping things together. Out of money, down on their luck and about to lose the roofs over their heads—and freshly fired from their low-lift jobs as house cleaners—the pair needs a huge windfall to make their problems go away. In a ‘what the hell?’ move, they decide to host the party of the year at an exclusive mansion, the site of their last cleaning job, which just happens to belong to none other than LeBron James. No permission? No problem. What could go wrong?

Usually, I love the type of comedy that’s not by-the-book and doesn’t play by the rules, with one of my all-time favorites being F. Gary Gray‘s Friday. It’s a relentlessly entertaining and hilarious buddy stoner comedy that is sure to make you smile from ear-to-ear.

That’s what I was hoping I would be doing during Calmatic‘s remake of House Party, but sadly, I found myself staring at the screen in utter shock at how bad it all was. This movie has practically nothing going for it except for a wide array of cameos that get old extremely fast.

What makes these cameos even more frustratingly annoying is the fact that they’re almost always introduced by a character who will quite literally say “Hey, look, it’s (insert name here)!”. It’s the filmmaker’s attempt at making you think the movie is good because it has a bunch of all-stars in it but in all reality, it’s an incredibly uneventful movie that doesn’t really even have a story.

The whole setup of the movie also takes way too long to be introduced. For the first thirty-five minutes or so of House Party, all we’re treated to are scenes of the lead characters bumbling around and just kind of being goofy. We’re never given a reason to actually like these characters and we’re not given an explanation as to what this movie’s going to really be about until so far in to the point where it’s actually kind of baffling.

One thing I will say though, is that they do give these leads some substance later on in the film which was a pleasant surprise. For example, Damon is seriously struggling financially in life and if he doesn’t find a way to get a good job that has decent pay soon, he’s going to be homeless as his aunt threatens to kick him out.

Once the big titular party begins is when the film gets to be insufferably annoying and it’s when you’ll want to turn it off. I wouldn’t blame you if you did. It’s here in which every single cameo starts to pour in and it’s also here in which you’ll likely lose your sanity trying to continue watching.

The number one thing that a comedy should do is make you laugh, smile, or at the very least, feel good. Calmatic’s House Party didn’t make me do any of those things. Rather, it just made me wish that I was watching the original, or the aforementioned Friday. Maybe I’ll go ahead and do that now.

Calmatic’s House Party remake is a disappointingly soulless comedy filled with annoying cameo appearances, unfunny jokes, and a story that takes way too long to take flight.