House Party

PLOT (spoiler alert!!!)

While in their high school cafeteria, Peter, also known as “Play” (Christopher “Play” Martin) announces to his friends Christopher aka “Kid” (Reid) and Bilal (Martin Lawrence) that he will be having a party at his house that night, as his parents are on vacation. The reluctant Bilal is to be the DJ. Kid is then involved in an altercation with school bully Stab (Paul Anthony) and his two brothers Pee-Wee and Zilla (Bowlegged Lou and B-Fine). When Kid comes home, he tries to convince his father, “Pop” (Robin Harris) to let him go to the party. At first Kid’s father relents, but soon grounds Kid when a note from Kid’s school informs him of the fight he was in. Rather than miss the party of the year, Kid sneaks out while his sleeping father is watching Dolemite – not realizing that his father woke up just as he closed the door. On his way to the party, Kid runs into Stab and his brothers, and ducks into an Alpha Delta Sigma reunion nearby to get away from them. Crashing the reunion, Kid has the DJ (George Clinton) scratch and mix a few of his old doo wop records so that he can liven the party with a rap, until Stab and the others turn up again. When trying to get away from Stab, he winds up knocking an older man down before attempting to make a run for it. However, Kid and the bullies are caught by the neighborhood police, who humiliate the four teenagers in front of the reunion party attendees before letting them go. Before that, he jumps over a fence to get away, ending up looking in a window where a fat man is having rough sex with his lady, and when he is discovered, Kid runs away, and the three punks are shot at.

When Kid finally makes it to the house party, he finds it in full swing, with attractive girls Sydney (Campbell) and Sharane (Johnson) also in attendance. After some music and dancing, Kid and Play first get into a dance contest with Sidney and Sharane, and later have a quick freestyle battle. Stab and his friends attempt to break up the party, but are arrested a second time by the policemen, who take delight in the prospect of beating them up. Kid’s father eventually makes his way to the party, demanding to know where Kid is. When he doesn’t spot Kid – Kid is upstairs helping Sharane get her coat – Pop vows to wait for the boy at home. Although Kid and Sydney each have an eye for each other, Sharane decides to openly flirt with Kid, much to Sydney’s disgust. The three of them soon leave the party, but when Kid tries to make advances on Sharane, she rebuffs him. Kid then walks Sydney back home, and after some argument the two of them finally calm down and make conversation.

Sydney allows Kid to sneak into her house, and the two are about to have sex in Sydney’s room when she stops him, wanting to know if she is simply his second choice. Kid admits that Sydney was his first choice all along, but they do not do anything when they see that the only condom Kid has is too old to be used. When Sydney’s parents come home – now revealed as one of the couples at the high school reunion, including the man Kid ran into – Sydney hastily helps Kid sneak out of the house. He manages to get out of yet another scrape with Stab and his brothers, and they all end up in a jail cell, where Kid entertains the rest of the men in the cell by rapping, distracting them long enough for Play, Sharane, Bilal, and Sydney to arrive with enough cash to bail him out. Later on, the five friends say their goodnights. Kid and Sydney share a long passionate kiss goodnight. After Play and Bilal drops him off, Kid sneaks in the house and gets undressed. As he is about to get into bed, he looks up only to find Pop holding a belt. The movie then cuts to the credits where Pop whipping Kid can be heard.

REVIEW:

The grand old 90s brought us this gem. Even though it was rated R, I don’t think there was a junior high kid who hadn’t seen this film, even the more prudish and uptight kids saw it, but not me. I was so lost when they would make jokes and references to this. Luckily, though, my best friend felt sorry for me and rented it one, thus allowing to enjoy House Party for the first time. I have to say that after all these years, not much has changed in terms of my overall enjoyment of the film.’

What did I like?

Oh wah oh wah ay. If you’re going to make a film about a couple of rapper friends, why not get an actual rapper duo. A little bit of trivia…this was actually written with DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince (Will Smith for those that don’t remember his rapper name), but they turned it down. Thank goodness they did. I don’t think it would have worked as well with them, anyway. The chemistry between Kid & Play is amazing, especially when they’re rapping, obviously. It is no wonder they went on to make 2 more of these and couple of other films together.

Tisha. When I was younger, I had a huge crush on Tisha Campbell. I think this is where it started. She quite the looker, don’t you agree? On top of that, she doesn’t overact, but just plays her part to a ‘T’.

Party time. The actual house party seems like something some drunk high schoolers would plan while their parents are out. There are some films that would feature something like that and it would resemble some kind of college or adult party.

What didn’t work?

Age. At the time this was filmed, the cast was in their late 20s-30s, and yet we are supposed to believe they’re high schoolers. Granted, Kid does look young, but he’s the only one. Hell, those Full Force boys look like they’re professional athletes pumped up on steroids.

Wallet contents. Maybe this is just my love for Tisha Campbell’s hotness coming out, but when they were in the bedroom about to have sex, I was ready to see some of her lovely high yellow skin. Unfortunately, the filmmakers decided to not give Kid a chance with her and have his condo, which he had in his wallet for years, be no good. I have never been a happy camper with this scene! There is a brief consolation prize with her in her panties, though.

Reunion. There is this random reunion party that is happening with George Clinton playing the DJ. I have never really figured out what this had to do with the film, even if it turns out that the guest that keeps Kid and the bullies out of jail ends up being Tisha Campbell’s father.

Racial. In Spike Lee movies, anytime you see a person of non-African American descent (excluding a handful of characters, such as the girl in Jungle Fever), they are automatically racist. This filmmaker does the same thing with these 2 cops who seem to be the token white guys. First of all, they don’t seem like the cops that would have been assigned this neighborhood and second, everytime they talk to someone, something just shy of being racist or racial profiling comes out of their mouths. I had to sit back and say WTF?!? after a couple of times!

House Party is a great, colorful, and fun film that I think a lot of people underestimate and/or have forgotten about. Even with the language and that unfulfilled sex scene (that never really happens, btw), this could actually be watched by the whole family. We need films like this today; the kind that make us forget about the real world and just laugh and have a good ol’ time.

4 out of 5 stars