Calmatic's House Party is one of those films you don't mind watching, but when you sit down to review it, you realize you don't have the energy to write about it. It's utterly insignificant - a comedy that's more noisy than funny. Written by Jamal Olori and Stephen Glover and serving as a reboot of the 1990 film of the same name, House Party piles on absurdities until it resembles complete nonsense. Every inane idea is thrown onto the screen, and Calmatic's ineffectual direction and comic timing render everything joyless and tiring. Jacob Latimore and Tosin Cole keep you watching, at least to some extent. Latimore, as Kevin, is very cautious because he doesn't want his ex-wife to get full custody of his daughter. He tries to avoid trouble and wants a stable income, preferably by making music. Damon (Cole), on the other hand, is wild and spirited and gets into all kinds of trouble. Since Kevin is close to Damon, these troubles also come knocking on his door. Near the beginning of the film, Kyle (Allen Maldonado) and his men give threats to Kevin when they are unable to locate Damon. One of the gang members, Larry (Melvin Gregg), goes too far with his intimidating remarks, prompting Kyle to tell him to dial down his threats.
Kevin and Damon work for a cleaning company, and one day, they are informed that they are being let go due to their unprofessional conduct at a client's home while on duty. Fortunately for them, they find themselves cleaning LeBron James' house that day, which gives them the idea of organizing a house party at the home of this rich basketball player who apparently has gone to India for two weeks of meditation. Talk about tackling unprofessional behavior with more unprofessional behavior. What's more, Kevin involves his crush/supervisor, Venus (Karen Obilom), in his mission (you see her slowly getting seduced by the wealth around her when she sits beside Kevin while dipping her legs in the swimming pool), and you realize he would make for a terrible boyfriend/husband. You see, Venus is about to receive a promotion, and this could destroy her career. But then House Party solves this complication by telling us that Venus doesn't want to be in this profession. She might have dreams of becoming a dancer. House Party, basically, doesn't want to challenge the audience. Instead of criticizing Kevin, it tells us he is doing Venus a favor. The writers don't want to make us uncomfortable, so they blithely brush aside all the conflicts and sugarcoat improper actions.
This gives rise to unintentional laughter and mild discomfort when House Party ties itself up with a lesson: Follow your dreams; they are worth chasing. Really? Should you pursue them, even if it means illegally taking over somebody's house and messing it up by organizing a party? Because, in terms of "inspiration," this is what you take away from this story. House Party embarrasses itself by dispensing such an upbeat perspective. The movie puts its characters through the same old routine. Damon and Kevin are best friends, so they have an amusingly complicated handshake. Their friendship temporarily turns sour when things seem out of control to Kevin. And finally, all the threads are casually tied up through an unconvincing and contrived happy ending. The Illuminati appear eventually, and you hear the filmmakers chuckling with delight. They think that by throwing mad inventions on the screen, they are being funny. Their craziness, however, is chaotic, not amusing.
A hologram of LeBron delivers motivational lines. LeBron is one of the producers of House Party, and there are moments in the movie that do the hologram's job by praising him. Characters call him "GOAT." A basketball match in the climax serves as an advertisement for LeBron's physicality. You can also consider House Party as an Architectural Digest-type tour through the basketball player's mansion. This is why the alternate title of this film could be LeBron James: How Rich And Awesome Is This Guy!
Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
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Publisher at Midgard Times