The Stream: Not funny enough and weird storyline change up

The Big Screen: A couple good laughs and call backs

The Final Bill: “Everyone” that is no one is in this forgettable comedy

– S2S: Movie Review
Director: Calmatic
Writers: Jamal Olori, Stephen Glover
Stars: Jacob Latimore, Tosin Cole, Karen Obilom
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R (language and drug use)
Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes
Production Companies: New Line Cinema, SpringHill Entertainment, The Hideaway Entertainment
Platform: In theaters January 13, 2023 released on HBO Max March 9, 2023

Welcome back, Streamers. HBO Max allowed us to revisit our past with a re-make of House Party. New Line Cinema has recreated a “remixed” version of the Kid ‘N Play cult classic, House Party. In 2023, we have two friends trying to make something of themselves, keeping their heads above water, and just trying to find a good life, but it comes at the expense of Lebron James’ fancy house. Let’s see if this is worth catching on HBO Max since we already missed its quick theater stint.

Ok, I’m going to put this as nicely as possible about this movie. It’s confused at best but much better than the House Partys 3-5 and that’s not saying much. The movie is a comedy and has every single Instagram comedian, content creator, and IG Thot you can think of. Now, the problem is none of these people are actually comedians or comedic actors. Therefore, either the joke writing is terrible or the acting and editing is bad. I know it’s both because the end credits show some funnier clips than what even occurred in the movie. Either way, for a comedy the movie only has a couple funny lines and then more forced dialogue that doesn’t actually hit the funny bone. The next issue with this movie is that at some point the movie just changes up. It’s like two movies in one and neither has anything to do with the other. The best way I can put it is that there’s a Sorry To Brother You segment that makes no sense in the context of this movie. Is it necessary, here? I think the worse part of this portion is not the actual scene as much as it’s so far away from the essence of the original movies that it becomes stupid. Of course, this isn’t a remake so in theory that is fine, but sticking to the original would’ve been much better.

As for the cast, like I said, everyone and their momma is in this movie. Ninety percent of them are nobodies that you wouldn’t recognize, but the ten percent of actual celebrities that do show up in the movie will make you giggle a bit. The producers of this movie pulled a lot of “has beens” out of their graves to make a cameo. Somehow, they also found a way to make Lebron and Anthony Davis cornier than they already are most times. Don’t even get me started on the Kid Cudi stuff again. Anyway, Jacob Latimore tries to do some normal acting and was okay. Tosin Cole does his best in this movie and mostly succeeds. He’s swaggy but his comedic timing is just off, but that could be the editing. We’ll see both in other movies and hopefully they’ll succeed a bit further. However, I’ll say the actors as a whole fail to give the spirit of Kid ‘N Play, Martin, and Tisha Campbell. The problem is that the original movie had rappers (Kid ‘N Play) who were actually cool and let them act normal whereas this movie tries to make actors act cool and it doesn’t feel natural. It makes the movie feel very awkward.

*DJ music stops and scratches* House Party (2023) is at best an average movie that has a couple funny parts but just feels awkward. This is one of those movies where I know why it did poorly in the theaters. This movie is at best a single kernel of popped popcorn where you can definitely find other movies to giggle at or just watch clips on Instagram and save yourself some time.