Lebron James’ production company SpringHill Company have been busy creating some memorable films since its inception in 2020. This has included the likes of Space Jam: A New Legacy, Hustle, and 2023’s House Party; a spiritual remake of the classic 1990 film of the same name. I have not seen the original House Party, yet I know enough on its cultural impact to know that it would be disappointed in what became of this sort of remake/reboot/whatever this film is.
The film follows the story of Kevin and Damon, two best friends and house cleaners/part time party promoters as they try to make enough money to send Kevin’s daughter to an expensive pre-school. They end up throwing a party at Lebron James’ house, which they are supposed to be cleaning, and chaos ensues. It is a simple enough premise to make it easy to follow. However, even with this, the film struggles to keep any sort of consistent pace. It feels like the first 45 minutes absolutely zooms through the plot until we get to the actual house party, when everything slows to a crawl. It takes away so much from the film that I struggled to stay interested in the story itself.
Even though House Party is billed as a comedy, I found it completely unfunny. I did not laugh at a single joke throughout the film. In fact, it honestly felt that the jokes rotated between poorly executed, shock humor to jokes seemingly written by a cringy middle schooler, and none of them actually connected. There were even jokes that just left me confused as to how anyone could write it and be proud, let alone when you represent a famous IP like the House Party franchise. It’s mind boggling how poorly the film executes here.
I also took issue with the characters in the film and their actions. The two main characters Damon and Kevin were wholly unlikeable, even though the film attempted to make them likeable. Damon in particular is extremely difficult to like, as he constantly is making poor decisions throughout the film and dragging everyone down with him. Kevin is always complaining about needing to make money for his daughter, but he shows that he would rather be goofing off, not working, and hoping to make a lot of money in a get-rich-quick scheme than actually putting in the time to work.
This doesn’t change until suddenly in the end of the film, when the characters have a sudden turn in development from out of nowhere. The shining grace in this film actually came from some celebrity cameos. It was obvious that the film focused WAY too much of their time on getting as many Black Icon type celebrities as they could into the film. It’s filled with so many cameos in the last hour that I wonder how much of their production budget it took to get them all.
Most were not great or just short scenes, but two stood out to me. Lebron James actually performed well in his late movie role, and I felt him to be completely believable. In addition, Kid Cudi was the best performer by far here. He has already proven his true acting chops in X, released last year, and that continued here. He was appropriately creepy yet endearing and I really enjoyed when he was on screen.
All this said, the most egregious parts of this film came from the writing. This film was so full of awful stereotypes of both black people and white people. Just watching the film made me sick with how many times the filmmakers blatantly and offensively stereotyped the characters. It took away from the film so much that I actually had to turn it off after 10 minutes before ultimately coming back to it to finish for the sake of this review.
One scene in particular stood out: while talking to their DJ, Kevin and Damon remind him not to drink alcohol, reminding him of what happened at the Frat Party the last time he did. The film cuts then to him playing the song “FDT (F*ck Donald Trump) by YG & Nipsey Hussle to a room of silent and angry looking white people, as if to say all white people adore the former president. In the same scene, we also get a cutaway of the DJ playing Lil Duval, Jacquees, & Tank’s “Nasty” at a baby shower while a very pregnant black woman fights with her husband. It’s just offensive on many levels and I didn’t enjoy watching it at all.
Final Thoughts
All that said, once the party starts, there were some enjoyable sections when the film took a step back and just let the party play out. I just wish these moments weren’t so few and far between and also cut throughout with myriad celebrity cameos. It was just exhausting to watch, and wholly unfunny. If you were looking for a movie to watch, it would be safe to skip this one, and instead watch the original House Party, or really any other film.
