House Party 2

I don't understand why this movie doesn't have a higher rating. I mean this movie was off the chain. Almost everybody in the movie had me cracking up. The movie maybe a little more silly and heavy-handed with it's message than the first one, but on the whole it still works. The only bad side is that Robin Harris (father) wasn't able to be in this sequel, because he died of a heart attack shortly after the first House Party came out. On a brighter note, people get to see Martin Lawrence before he started racking in the big bucks. I give this movie an 8/10.

After the success of HOUSE PARTY, I would expect NEW LINE to make a sequel. And I was a little scared, because the first one was amazingly great and this seemed rushed. But what I got from writer Rusty Cundieff(TALES FROM THE HOOD & SPRUNG) and director Doung McHenry and George Jackson made a good, but more silly sequel to a classic.

Kid'N'Play are going to college, well just mainly Kid, to leave the world and it's problems. While there Kid learns the lesson of responsibility....the hard way. Play gives the Kid's college money to a beautiful, yet crooked music promoter(Iman). And with Sidney(Tisha Campbell) wanting to see new people, Kid comes to Play with help and come up with a PAJAMA JAM PARTY.

Now this one's music is way better than the first one and is a little more funnier than one, but it just dosen't come close as being as great as the first. The hurt comes from two things. 1.)No Robin Harris to give us some more hilarious lines, because of he's death. 2.)Is the cartoon-like sound effects that make the movie just plain silly. Sometimes it works and a lot of times it don't.

The characters, both Kid and Play through plot development, and the plot itself, in which the Professor Sinclair and Mr. Lee characters are great role models for a young Black man in college, are more socially and culturally responsible than the previous movie and other college genre movies of the same period.

A shining example: the well-delivered speech by Georg Stanford Brown about what was and wasn't fair about Kid's having to write a paper and to prove his scholastic ability.

To begin, House Party 2 is no House Party. In fact, those that would like to compare the two are completely off their hypothetical film "rocker". These are two completely separate films. Do you know why? What originally began as a film about some soulful and youthful teens trying to get to the ultimate dance party has now transformed into this cliché morality tale that demonstrates the power of friendship and the strength of humility. WHAT! Is that why I wanted to watch this film? I apologize, but one of the few reasons that I liked House Party was because they followed the K.I.S.S. method (for those unfamiliar it is the Keep It Simple Stupid method) of film-making. In the original, becoming a lyricist, a ladies man, and having the best party in town was the root of the film. While there was a romantic side to the story, it fell second nature to the growing hip-hop scene. It was a dance film first, developed character story second. Honestly, that is what I enjoyed about the film. While I didn't think House Party was the greatest release of the century, it did have this genuine feel about it. In fact, after watching this poorly crafted sequel, I have a bit more respect for the original. Where was the dancing? Where was the creativity? Where was the same Kid & Play that I remembered from the first House Party? They were nowhere to be found in this trashy sequel.

Robin Harris. We all remember him as "Pop" from the original film, but what we do not realize about this humorous comedian is that he subsequently changed the image of the House Party series. In the original, he was this father trying to steer his son into a path of academia instead of rap and parties, in the sequel, he plays a spirit who annoyingly hounds Kid throughout the film with flashbacks from the original. Due to his death, he brings nothing new to the table, yet this entire sequel seems to be focused around those few short words that he used in the first film. I don't mean to be rude, but I never felt that the father was such a big element in the original. I thought that Kid trying to challenge authority to attempt to find himself was the underlying meaning of the original, while in this one it is Kid repressing his true self in hopes to make his dead father happy. Where did the lightness of the original go? I watched House Party 2 thinking that there is a limit that the writers could go without making Kid seem totally whipped by his father's words, but we never hit that limit. Where, anywhere in this film, was Kid trying to find his rap roots? I needed to see a young man still interested in becoming the lyricist that he once desired to be? Why did he have to grow up so fast? In fact, the rap side-story to this film seems to be the negative element. We have gone from loving the genre to completely disrespecting it in one film. Ah, the power of the sequel.

Martin Lawrence was again completely annoying to the point in which I completely tuned him out whenever he spoke. He brought nothing to the story and nothing to the main characters. Lawrence was nothing more than a familiar face for the audience to relate to. In fact, it is that dedication to familiar faces from the original that hurt this sequel. When the ultimate PAJAMA JAM finally does occur (one hour into this short film), we are hit with an barrage of repetitive scenes of aged rappers and comedians from the original who do nothing but repeat their lines, actions, and emotions from the first. While many may enjoy these familiar faces, I felt as if it were a cheap trick used to make me feel more comfortable about the film. If these minor characters had done more than just repeat their lines, than maybe I would have bought into the trick, but instead all I saw were cheap repetitive motions used by writers to fill time. I used the word "repetitive" several times in this paragraph because it demonstrated the annoying repetitive nature of this film and completed my point about using that element as a cheap trick. I hope it worked.

In most television series, especially the cheapened kind, we sometimes hear a laugh track or a sound machine used to create some "zany" or "wacky" sound that lightens the mood and creates the viable laugh point. In House Party 2, I do believe that the sound guy was extremely drunk or possibly working his first day in the booth. There were more sound effects in this film than in a Bobby McFerrin music video. Was this a child's movie or another urban comedy? Neither Kid nor Play could do anything in this film without a "zip zim" or a "whoosh" or a "ding dong" noise happening somewhere in the background. This was a fresh element to the sequel which direly needed to be taken away. There is a chase scene near the end of the film which felt like Pee-Wee Herman choreographed it with all the unsettling sounds that were happening. After the first twenty minutes of this, it because increasingly annoying to the point of insanity.

Overall, this sequel soils the original. The themes were sporadic (i.e. in one instance we are talking about the oppression of the African American, while in the other the directors seem to be building age-old stereotypes), the characters continued towards their bland downward spiral, those annoying, randomly placed racist police officers were back, and the dominating "father" element seemed too serious for the overall theme of this film. I hope this film wasn't an indication of the path of colleges in the future? House Party 3, don't fail me now!

Grade: ** out of *****

House Party 2 (1991) is a movie I recently rewatched for the first time in a long time on Netflix. The storyline picks up shortly after where the last movie left-off. Unfortunately Kid's father has passed away and he wants to live out his father's dream of seeing him attend college. Play would prefer Kid skip college and help him pursue a rap career. When Kid's college check donated to him by his church is cashed and spent by Play, their friendship and future quickly becomes at risk.

This movie is codirected by George Jackson (only movie directed) and Doug McHenry (Jason's Lyric) and stars Martin Lawrence (Martin), Christopher Reid (Class Act), Christopher Martin (Class Act), Tisha Campbell (School Daze), Queen Latifah (Chicago), Helen Martin (Death Wish).

Martin Lawrence and the character Pee-Wee are easily my favorite parts of this movie. The storyline isn't overly creative and a bit painful at times and they purposely recycle some of the same jokes and routines from the first film (on purpose but its a bit cheesy). Queen Latifah was a great addition, the soundtrack was excellent and they did do some of the coming of age elements well.

Overall this is a must watch for fans of the first one and/or Martin Lawrence. This doesn't have the magic of the first film but it has its own charm. I would recommend seeing this once and would score it a 6/10.