Remake or reboot of the 1990 comedy but one made with more money and with more money on its mind. This new version, directed by Charles Kidd II aka Calmatic, a music video director who won a Grammy Award for Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road," makes this film all about reveling in wealth and opulence and regarding wealth and opulence about all else. It could be said that this film is a satire of the rich and famous, but this film revels in all the money on display that far removes it from the 1990 original by Oscar-nominee Reginald Hudlin (Django Unchained).
The original was about teenagers having a party in a regular house that wasn't that special. It was about them operating in a space that was familiar and more relatable. Hudlin's film also took us into the homes of other characters that provided us insight into the homes of African Americans in the inner-city that is also familiar. It reflected Black culture in a way that felt like true representation of the reality of most Black people, if not played up comically. This film isn't representational in that way. Instead, it's more like the reality of music videos. A better remake of House Party was probably Steve McQueen's episode of Small Axe titled "Lovers Rock."
Jacob Latimore (The Chi and Black Nativity) stars as Kevin, a young Black man living at home with his parents who are nearing retirement. Kevin is also a parent himself who has a little girl he's raising but he's not married. He's passionate about making music, but he works at a house-cleaning company. He also works as a club promoter but apparently he's not getting paid to do it or is not making much at it. He is about to get a IT job, which would likely better his situation.
However, the script by Jamal Olori and Stephen Glover wants us to feel that Kevin's financial status is more dire or tenuous. In order for the premise to go forward Kevin needs to be desperate or hard up for cash. Unfortunately, the film never sells that point. There is a line about Kevin needing money for his daughter's school but that point isn't sold well.
Tosin Cole (Doctor Who and Till) co-stars as Damon, pronounced DAH-MAAN, a fellow club promoter who also works with Kevin at the same, cleaning company. He doesn't take his job seriously. He goofs off and slacks off, not doing much of anything. When those actions get him fired, he'd rather focus on club promoting full time. In fact, he comes up with a plan to throw a party at the mansion of Lebron James and charge people for it.
If one remembers the 1990 version, Damon is comparable to the character of "Play" in that film. Here, Damon is also a womanizer, a brash, cocky, hype man. Unlike "Play," Damon isn't as smooth. Damon is louder and more emotional. He could come across as more annoying. He leans more toward the Kevin Hart style of behavior, which can sometimes be too loud and too brash.
It's also sad that a film that's over 30 years old did a better job of establishing its female characters than this one. Karen Obilom plays Venus who is the main female character here, but other than helping Kevin, she's not given much. She's an aspiring dancer, but she's not given much space or room to be an independent character. Tisha Campbell in the original 1990 version had more space and room to be her own character.
Allen Maldonado (The Wonder Years and Black-ish) who plays Kyle, Rotimi (Power and Black Nativity) who plays Guile and Melvin Gregg (Snowfall and American Vandal) who plays Larry are the main antagonists here. If one remembers the 1990 flick, they're the equivalent of the bullies, played by Full Force. Full Force was a R&B group, active in the 80's and early 90's. They were comically well used in the 1990 film, but Maldonado, Rotimi and Gregg are trained, comedic actors, so their performances are vastly better than Full Force, but even they aren't that well integrated here.
A lot of cameos make this film feel more like it was cameos for cameos' sake, just to have them without doing anything substantial with them or giving them much of anything funny to do. The only exceptions are the rapper Kid Cudi, the singer Mya and actor Walter Emanuel Jones (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers). However, the Kid Cudi stuff veers the film into the ridiculous, which didn't aide the film's narrative much at all. It was just an opportunity for the film to be super silly before dropping it like a hot potato.
Rated R for language, drug use, sexual material and some violence.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 40 mins.
In theaters.
