Life of the Party

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I loved this movie. The writing flowed well, the jokes landed and it was just spot on. Maybe it's because I'm a 40 something mom with two daughters in college, but for me, this movie just hit on so many levels. And that cradle robbing rebound, been there!

I haven't heard a room of people all gasp so loud at a movie in a very long time. It's laugh-out-loud funny and not as predictable as you might think. Also, happy to report that it was not a case of all the funny parts already been seen in the trailer. Very well done, and we also enjoyed the brief cameo by Ben Falcone.

This film tells the story of a woman undergoing a divorce, who decides to go to college with her daughter to finish the degree she has not finished. It is a brain off, feel good film. It features a lot of light hearted fun, and I find it enjoyable.

I watched the movie because of Jessie Ennis as I'm a great fan of her dead pan acting skills. Yes the movie is kinda predictable but it never pretended not to be. But Maya made me howl with laughter in the restaurant scene and I would watch the whole movie again and again if that was the only way to see her do that scene.

As daughter Maddie enters her final year at university, mum Deanna is brutally dumped by her husband, and so decides to return to university to complete the degree she gave up to have Maddie. Maddie is not amused. Written by Melissa McCarthy and her husband (who directs it), this comedy treads fairly familiar ground. It's not unfunny (though nowhere near as funny as it thinks it is), and has an identifiable emotional core. I found the suggestion that hot student Jack (who looks like a cross between Harry Potter if he was normal height, and Jake Gyllenhaal) would become sexually besotted by short, portly forty-something Deanna strained my credibility somewhat, but it worked fairly well as a comedy dynamic. The final fund-raising payoff was also a tad unconvincing, but never mind. This is a time-passer, nothing more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It was a feel good movie with some genuine laughs. There is nothing new here but that doesn't make it a bad movie. Sometimes you just want a movie to entertain you and I believe this movie fits the bill perfectly. Also it helps that I would watch Maya Rudolph read a cereal box and find it amazing.

I love Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone. They are great together when they are acting in movies and I think it is wonderful that a couple can work together so well. However, I am starting to see a pattern emerging. Every time Ben Falcone has something to do with the writing or directing of a movie that Melissa McCarthy is in it seems to end up being a real stinker of a movie. Just a coincidence? I hope so.

"Life of the Party" (PG-13, 1:45) is a comedy directed by Ben Falcone and co-written by Falcone and his wife (and star of the film), Melissa McCarthy. That's bad news for Movie Fans. The only feature films that Falcone has written and directed were star vehicles for his wife - "Tammy", "The Boss" and this one - and they're ALL terrible! McCarthy is an Oscar and Golden Globe nominee and Emmy winner whose best comedy movies - like "Spy", "Ghostbusters", "Heat" and "Bridesmaids" - were all directed by Paul Feig. HE knows how to use McCarthy's considerable comedic talents. Too bad Feig didn't direct this one. McCarthy plays Deanna, a sweet suburban mom whose only child, Maddie (Molly Gordon), is starting her senior year in college. Immediately after Deanna and her husband, Dan (Matt Walsh), drop off Maddie at her sorority house, Dan tells Deanna that he wants a divorce so he can marry his mistress (Emmy winner Julie Bowen). All of this comes as a complete shock to Deanna who leans on her parents (Stephen Root and Oscar and Golden Globe nominee Jacki Weaver) and her best friend (Maya Rudolph). Deanna bemoans the years wasted in her marriage, which included her dropping out of college (because she was pregnant with Maddie) a year before earning her archaeology degree. But then she has an idea. Deanna re-enrolls in her old college for her senior year, which makes her classmates with her daughter. Maddie has mixed emotions, especially when Deanna starts hanging out at Maddie's sorority house, but Maddie's friends really like having Deanna around and Maddie goes along with it. All of this opens the door for Deanna to go to college parties, sleep with college guys (well, one guy), encourage her creepy roommate (Heidi Gardner) to be less creepy and help Maddie's friends figure out their lives, including inspiring Maddie's academically challenged friend (Gillian Jacobs) to make archaeology her major too. As all this happens, a couple mean-girl college classmates, the divorce proceedings and Dan's impending remarriage become growing sources of frustration for Deanna (or Dee-Rock, as her classmates call her). "Life of the Party" is an unfunny, unprofessional mess. The movie's premise has potential, but lazy writing gives us precious few good jokes and the dialog and plot points have most characters speaking and acting in ways that don't make sense, even in a silly comedy. Meanwhile, amateurish directing puts too much of the burden on McCarthy to make "lemons out of lemonade" (one of the movie's so-called jokes). The acting isn't much better. McCarthy is fine, but almost everyone else has smiles glued on their faces (even at times most normal people would be frowning) in a desperate attempt to convince us they're having a good time, so we should too. I hope McCarthy and Falcone have a long, happy marriage, but it would be nice if their professional partnership would stop making the rest of us so unhappy. Creatively, they're now 0-3. There's simply no life in this party. "D"

I laughed my butt off throughout the movie!! It's NOT a copycat of Back To School! The stories are very different. I actually liked this better than BtS with Rodney Dangerfield. It's definitely a girl power movie. I will be buying this when it's on DVD.