House Party
You might wanna beef up your home security, King James.
Cast of Characters:
Damon – Tosin Cole
Kevin – Jacob Latimore
Venus – Karen Obilom
Vic – D.C. Young Fly
Scott Mescudi – Himself
Director – Calmatic
Writer – Jamal Olori & Stephen Glover
Based on the film House Party by Reginald Hudlin
Producer – LeBron James & Maverick Carter
Distributor – Warner Bros. Pictures
Running Time – 110 minutes
Rated R for pervasive language, drug use, sexual material and some violence.
The Rundown: Best pals Damon (Tosin Cole) and Kevin (Jacob Latimore) have dreams of becoming club promoters, but things aren’t panning out as planned for them, as they are barely keeping things together with their personal lives. They’re broke, down on their luck, and, to add insult to injury, just got fired from their jobs as house cleaners.
Yet hope springs eternal for the BFF duo when they see an opportunity to score some big bucks that could end all their problems. How so? Well, by hosting the party of the year at their last cleaning job, an exclusive mansion owned by none other than NBA superstar LeBron James.
Initial Thoughts: Development on a reboot of the 1990 comedy House Party began almost five years ago, in February 2018, with LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s production company SpringHill Entertainment producing the project and music video director Calmatic directing. Originally planned for a release on Warner Bros.’s streaming service HBO Max, the film was eventually moved to a theatrical release, as part of a new restructuring plan by the studio to put more focus back on theatrical releases for their new films.
The original 1990 House Party isn’t an all-time great comedy, but it still delivers a briskly-paced, energetic fun time, with stars Kid ‘n Play making a likable coming duo. Did we need a whole five-film franchise out of it? Uh – no. It’s about a house party. This isn’t Harry Potter here. Nevertheless, there’s no denying the original’s status as a cult hit, having earned its place in late ’80s, early ’90s pop culture. While we can wonder all day who out there, other than LeBron and Maverick, was actually asking for a House Party reboot, it is what it is, yet ,unfortunately, the most it winds up sharing with the original is the name, ’cause it fails to be as funny.
The Good: Collateral Beauty and last year’s awful Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel notwithstanding, I do like Jacob Latimore as an actor. I think he’s more than adept at handling both comedy and drama, turning in fine performances in both Sleight and Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit. Here, it’s evident that Latimore is trying to make the most of the character limitations given to him in the script, and he also shares some nice chemistry with Karen Obilom as Kevin’s potential love interest Venus. While House Party won’t be going down as a resume highlight for the actor, he, on the other hand, is one of the film’s very few highlights.
As you expect in a lot of these rowdy party-centered movies, there are celebrity cameos galore. Most of them are perfunctory show-ups, where you imagine LeBron probably called up some of his buddies one day like Snoop Dogg, Odell Beckham, Jr. and Lakers teammate Anthony Davis and asked if they wanted to swing by and shoot a scene. But a couple of them are, admittedly, funny; in particular, there is a brief appearance by one of the former Power Rangers that earned the only actual laugh-out-loud moment in the entire film.
It’s not so much the line being said that’s funny, but more who’s saying it.
The Bad: It’s not like I was expecting a laugh riot comedy masterpiece from the man that helmed Lil Nas X’s music video for “Old Town Road”. It’s still amazing, though, how badly Calmatic swings and misses here, ’cause, honestly, a comedy about sneaking into LeBron’s home and throwing a raucous house party could’ve worked, and, as already said, there are some laughs here, but they are few and far between, and are more soft chuckles than hearty guffaws. Save those few moments, of which I can count the total of on one hand, Calmatic and co-writers Jamal Olori and Stephen Glover have slopped together a humorless mess, throwing everything including the kitchen sink at the screen in hopes that something will stick, yet very little, if anything, actually does. Sure, there are callbacks (this version has three bullies who are direct parallels to Stab, Pee-Wee and Zilla from the original), and recycled bits from the original, but that’s just it. As is the case with most bad remakes/reboots, this version lazily rehashes what the original already did, and did much better.
Like the 1990 version, the house party here almost plays a supporting role to all the crazy detours that occur outside of the party. That was part of the fun and charm of the original movie, yet such detours here seem so bizarrely detached from reality that it takes you completely out of the movie. In easily the strangest, most bat-shit moment of the entire film, Scott Mescudi (playing a highly fictionalized version of himself) helps Damon and Kevin find a replacement for LeBron’s stolen Cleveland Cavaliers championship ring by taking them to, of course, an Illuminati meeting. It’s a strange extended sequence (which also features a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance by Kid ‘n Play), and it only gets wilder and, if you can believe it, bloodier as it plays out.
You’d think my issue would be with that bizarre side-story, but actually, the issue is that out of left field side-story is the only time House Party shows any signs of life, and had Calmatic embraced that kind of nuttiness for the entire film, we may have gotten a better movie. However, the film’s overall approach is, for the most part, grounded and relatively realistic (aside from a stupid bit involving a stoned koala), so the abrupt tone shift feels incredibly jarring and disruptive.
Of course, LeBron shows up toward the end, which shouldn’t be a spoiler. The film takes place at his home and he’s a producer, so why wouldn’t he show up? Technically, the NBA superstar already briefly appears near the beginning as a trophy room hologram that’s actually kinda funny and a bit self-deprecating (including a recurring gag with his famous pre-game powder that’s mistaken for cocaine). When his actual self finally appears, it earns a couple chuckles at first, but it’s the type of comic bit that would’ve worked so much better as a short cameo. Instead, it overstays its welcome and is stretched out into an entire third-act finale involving a 1-on-1 basketball contest that is weirdly played for drama with stakes on the line that matter for our two leads.
‘Cause when you have a 1-on-1 match between LeBron and a guy who looks 100-pounds soaking wet when matched next to him, why would you want to play that for laughs?
But the stakes don’t end up mattering for us, because…
The Ugly: Most of what drags House Party down is that it’s anchored by two unlikeable lead characters, one of whom is just flat-out obnoxious. This isn’t any fault of Latimore and his costar Tosin Cole (who was great as Medgar Evers in last year’s biographic drama Till), both of whom are trying here. No, the fault goes to Olori and Glover, who try to compensate for their leading idiots by making weak, forced attempts at humanizing them. For instance, Kevin is a single dad struggling to provide for his daughter so he doesn’t lose custody of her. This is what motivates him to eventually go along with the idea of scamming people for money at a house party. It’s a sweet sentiment, but barely anything is provided to the relationship between Kevin and his daughter. Despite a few brief moments at the beginning, before she’s shipped off to the baby mama where she’s never to be seen again, viewers are hardly given enough substance to resonate with his circumstance. As for Damon (pronounced “Duh-mahn” like it’s French, which Duh-mahn keeps repeating like a dumb broken record), he is insufferable throughout the entire movie. That is, of course, until the movie needs him to immediately change, so it quickly pulls a third-act redemption moment for him out its ass. With him having such a flatline character arc for most of the movie, though, it’s a redemption that is entirely unearned.
Lastly, for a film directed by a man with a music video background, it’s shocking how dull this film looks. Say what you will about this comedy having very few laughs, which I already did at length. You’d think that Calmatic, who’s received widespread praise for the music videos he’s put together, would at least give this film some verve or visual flare, but it’s total lack of any sort of style is depressing.
Consensus: Despite an earnest effort from Jacob Latimore and a couple funny cameos, 2023’s House Party is ultimately a tiresome and unfunny reboot that fails to recapture the silly, energetic vibe of the 1990 original.
Silver Screen Fanatic’s Verdict: I give House Party a D (★).
About Post Author
