OllieSuave-007 This is a wacky little flick that I saw during 7th grade in class. Lots of forced comedy and wild dialog, but entertaining at certain points. Plenty of my classmates loved it, but I thought it was pretty average though. Grade C

aarosedi This one has very wholesome premise for a party film, that is if you look past all the swearing, an instance of somebody being beaten up, a brief no-nudity sex scene. There's no depiction of drug use, there's only a single instance of teenage drinking which was admonished by other teens, the house party is just full of salacious teenagers who are too busy with their dancing and mating rituals (everyone is too exhausted in between song numbers for them to explore the lustier side of teenage life). They are far too consumed with groping and grinding together with their dance partners, and even those who couldn't find one. The dance contests and freestyle rap battles are superb and energetic.There is that subversive humor bubbling underneath. The filmmakers' grievances and frustrations with the "authority" they loathe ever present, but not without empathy. They have a smile plastered in their faces as they bare their heart and soul to the audience. The film starts with an unembellished, mesmerizing, hypnotic crowd dance sequence that serves as a teaser to encapsulate all of the character's innermost desires. Full blown escapism that is straight-forward and spot on.Peter "Play" Martin decides to take advantage of his parent's absence and host a party for his friends at his home and they have enlisted Bilal (pre-superstardom Martin Lawrence, hysterical as always) to DJ using those bulky turntables and gigantic speakers. But unfortunately for Chris "Kid" Harris who got in trouble at the school cafeteria, his father received a note from the school principal detailing the incident which automatically grounded him, but Kid still manages to sneak out determined not to miss the party of the year. The father, upon realization that his son snuck out on him, furiously goes after him. Both of their journey to the said party are filled with zany and madcap adventures.Robin Harris shows that earnestness and fondness for his on-screen son with that seldom-seen understated tenderness in a father-son relationship. Very capable performances also from Christopher Reid , Christopher Martin, Tisha C Martin and the ensemble of actors that they assembled for this film, quite a riot. Special mention to the uproarious comedic performances from Play Martin's grumbling neighbor John Witherspoon, and to Daryl Mitchell's Chill whose intense dancing just keeps on bumping the DJ table much to Bilal's dismay. I had the chance of watching this as a kid during the '90s and I thought it was just a "funny ha-ha" decent comedy. But now 2010+, having the luxury of hindsight (knowledge of African-American history from the '60s to the '90s, background that I never had back then) and in re-watching this, I was bowled over because now I have a more mature regard for this kind of work. For me, I consider it now as a "whoa-ho-ho-ho hilarious" slice-of-life snapshot of the late-'80s-early-'90s contemporary African-American experience. My rating: B-plus.

ptb-8 Released in 99% white Australia at the height of the warehouse dance party wave, this hilarious all black hip hop indie rang true to us neon shirted whities who could have our own moment of 'rock around the clock style new wave dance madness' by actually dancing in the aisles of the cinema. And what a crummy cinema it was....the Mandolin in Sydney was the mangy red velvet 60s beatnik cinema that was a converted 1930s radio theater. Perfect! I think that night we went to the movies and saw Kid'n'Play's HOUSE PARTY and appropriately went to an all night dance party in a warehouse nearby with 5000 others who secretly knew it was on (yes 5000 others) and like in HOUSE PARTY, you had to know it was on in there.... so we got to see the movie and cross/culture/shift and relive the experience to the same music. HOUSE PARTY like that night is a moment in time, part of the hilarious reckless nights we have all had in the late 80s (see the great tiny1982 indie Oz pic GOING DOWN for proof) ... to new music with hilarious friends and dance tracks that allowed you to dance with 15 different people. I know there were sequels but by then the time had gone and the dance parties were full of bad drugs and bonehead behavior. HOUSE PARTY is the bookend to PARTY MONSTER.. the incredible lavish and absolutely bullseye moment of the 90s captured on film in 2003 with Macauley Culkin and Seth Green. It would be horrifying fun to see these films together in one sitting to identify the night it started and the night it stopped. I suppose it is the same idea wondering how we got from "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" to "When I Think Of You I Touch Myself". Yes HOUSE PARTY is the innocent side of the coke chopping razor and PARTY MONSTER is the harsh sunlight of next morning.

Pepper Anne Oddly serving as the thesis film for director Reginald Hudlin while a student at Harvard, 'House Party' is one of my favorite teen comedies. Although, clearly most of the cast (especially Martin Lawrence and the members of Full Force) who were clearly somewhere in their late 20s, if not early 30s. However, this is one all-black teen comedy which did things with just the right amount of spunk, and the characters were not so obnoxious and not so stereotypical that you couldn't enjoy their (mis)adventures.Old school rappers, Kid and Play, are two high school friends. Play is hosting a house party when his folks go out of town and his number one mate, Kid, plans on making an appearance. But, after getting into a scuffle with one of the bullies (aka, the biggest muscles from Full Force), he gets suspended. Like Les Anderson hoping his parents won't find out that he flunked his driver exam in 'License to Drive,' Kid prays that his father won't find out about his getting in trouble at school because he desperately wants to go that party.But, more importantly, there is a great mix of subplots interacting which make this movie quite entertaining, especially the idiotic white cops that seem to appear at the most inconvenient moments (and not appear at the convenient ones) to harass the neighborhood and Kid's father (stand-up comedian, Robin Harris) making his way to the house party to bring his son home. And get a load of those clothes and dancing! For fans of old school rap and hip-hop: the nostalgia trip alone should be reason enough to watch it. And, though several House Party sequels would follow, the first two are really the only ones worth watching.